


I Should Ink My Skin With Your Name

by Gryffindancer



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men (Movies)
Genre: BAMF Darcy Lewis, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Captain America: The Winter Soldier Compliant, Crossover Pairings, Darcy Lewis's iPod, F/M, Feminist Darcy Lewis, HYDRA sucks, Kidnapping, Logan is snarky, Rare Pairings, SHIELD Agent Darcy Lewis, Sexual Content, Smut, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, brief descriptions of domestic abuse, brief descriptions of torture, so many nicknames
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-11-19
Packaged: 2018-04-19 17:49:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 58,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4755527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gryffindancer/pseuds/Gryffindancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy knew she'd find her soulmate someday. She just didn't expect him to look like the Brawny paper towel guy with muttonchops.</p><p>Soulmate/Soulmark fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My sincerest apologies for my first long-fic on Ao3 not being my typical OTP of TaserHawk. I've been just as surprised as you, to be honest. But this just sort of happened and kept growing.
> 
> My first introduction to this ship was with _Someone You've Yet to Meet_ by CircusBones. So jump over and give that one a read, because it's amazing.
> 
> I have almost 20,000 words of this story written already, but I originally wanted to wait a bit longer before posting. But I've been dealing with some postgrad anxiety recently, and so my hope is that by going ahead and posting this story, I can both be distracted a bit from the aforementioned anxiety as well as get a bit of a boost when I see a little bit of Ao3 love in my inbox from kudos and comments (wink wink).
> 
> The title is from Ed Sheeran's _Wake Me Up._
> 
> Also, this fic is unbeta'd, both because I'm somewhat fundamentally lazy, and more excusably because I'm currently beta-less. So mistakes are mine, Marvel is not. Now I shall stop rambling and let you read in peace.

Darcy's eyes opened blearily to the sound of yelling and running footsteps outside the door. Earlier in the week she would have tried to rub the sleep from her eyes, but by now she had grown used to the shackles on her wrists. They kept her arms restrained above her head, linked securely to the wall. She squirmed on the dirty mattress beneath her as the yelling got louder outside the thick steel door of her room- cell, whatever - and she was pretty sure those were gunshots she heard too. 

_Well shit._ She thought. _That better be the good guys._

She suddenly wished she was in more than her underwear. Why was it that kidnappers always strip their victims down to their skivvies?

Although, in this situation it had been so the goons holding her here could attach a whole slew of electrodes to her body. After which they asked her questions about SHIELD, and tried to get her to spill a bunch of personal shit about Director Fury (As if she even knew that kind of shit. She was fairly certain Fury's mother didn't know anything personal about that man). But when she wouldn't answer (or couldn't answer) they sent a super fun tidal wave of voltage streaming through the electrodes. They had probably been at it for at least four days, and every time when they were done they would drag her back to the same room and chain her back up.

Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the door to her cell. She backed up on the mattress as best she could and braced herself, wincing when the movement jostled her almost definitely broken ribs. Darcy was at least glad to say that she had taken down four of their goons before they finally gotten the jump on her and knocked her out cold.

More banging and yelling, and the door came down with a loud crash.

A tall, broad-shouldered man, with dark hair and scruffy muttonchops strode in like he owned the room. His eyes focused in on her.

"Well hey little lady. What's say you and I blow this shitty excuse for a popsicle stand?" Darcy blinked slowly, then said the only thing that came to mind.

"I swear to all that is holy, you had better be the motherfucking cavalry." She croaked out. Her throat was dry and scratchy from a week's worth of screaming and yelling. Being repeatedly electrocuted could do that to a girl. But she shoved that thought away to deal with at a later time. Like one where she wasn't potentially getting rescued...by her motherfucking soulmate.

The man's eyes went wide for a fraction of a second, before composing himself again.

"Well, shit."

Darcy let out a huff of a laugh, "That's about where I'm at too." She tugged on her shackles, "But seriously. If you're trying to rescue me right now, I'd love to get to the part where you get me the fuck out of these."

The dude chuckled. "I'll getchya out. Don't worry." He quirked a scruffy eyebrow and circled the bed (if you could call a dirty, bloodstained mattress on the floor a bed) and knelt down to unchain her hands.

"Who's worried, muttonchops?"

"Mutton- really?"

"Well, you didn't exactly introduce yourself."

He huffed, "Name's Logan. I'm with the X-Men."

That rung a bell. She took note of the yellow piping on his leather jumpsuit. "Wolverine."

"That's me. Now, don't move." He said seriously. She heard a metallic _'snikt_ which she assumed were his legendary claws extending, and then a louder metallic sound as he cut through the shackles on her wrists. She heard his claws retract, and then his hands were beneath her, ready to lift her up.

"Careful." She said, bracing herself for pain, "I think they broke some shit."

"Noted." He growled out, lifting her more carefully than she would have assumed possible from him. It still hurt her bruised and bashed up body, but she clenched her teeth and the worst of it was over as he started walking back out of the room.

Logan quickly made his way through the smoke and haze filled hallways, and out the back of the building where a sleek black jet - longer and narrower than the quinjets - stood ready for take off. He carried her up the gangplank and inside, where there were several other people - most of them looked younger than her - all dressed in similar leather jumpsuits. Once inside, the gangplank raised back up behind them and Logan laid Darcy on a sort of cot that folded out from the wall. He stepped back, folding his arms across his chest as a petite woman with dark skin and snow-white hair took over.

"Agent Lewis, I'm Ororo Munroe. We're gonna get you back to New York soon, okay?" She said, pulling several straps out from the wall to secure Darcy to the bed for the flight. The others in the jet were taking seats and strapping in.

"Sounds -ungh- peachy." Darcy gasped, as one of the straps dug into her bruised side. Behind Ororo, Logan flinched, drawing Darcy's attention back to him, and Ororo followed Darcy's eyes to where he stood.  
"Logan? What are you still doing here?"

"Oh, yeah. I'll just, uh...go, then." He uncrossed his arms and moved toward the front of the jet, out of Darcy's sight.

"I wonder what's got him all worked up?" Ororo mused rhetorically, now tucking a blanket over Darcy's scantily clad form.

"It's probably because I'm his soulmate." Darcy offered, ever helpful.

"You're- what?" Darcy got the feeling that it was difficult to shock this woman, and yet that was the emotion written across her face.

"Yeah, it wasn't exactly what I'd call a meet-cute."

Ororo laughed, "Well, somehow that doesn't surprise me much."

"Not much of a rainbows and glitter kinda guy, huh?"

"That's one way of putting it." Ororo checked the straps holding Darcy one more time, and nodded, apparently content that she was secure. "I gotta go get us off the ground. Catch some sleep if you can, but if you need anything..."

"I'll give ya' a holler. Yeah. Thanks."

The ride was relatively short and altogether uneventful, and Darcy was able to grab an hour or so of sleep before they landed on the rooftop landing pad of the Avengers Tower. Logan once again carried Darcy out of the jet and only had to stop when a frantic Jane ran out to meet them, followed by a much calmer Agent Coulson.

"I'm sorry, Agent Lewis," Coulson said over Jane's mother-henning. "Dr. Foster insisted on coming to meet you."

"It's okay boss-man. She's pretty persistent." Darcy smiled from her place in Logan's arms, happy to see her friend again.

"Oh, hush." Jane huffed. "When my best friend and ex-intern gets kidnapped on a mission and is missing for a week, I think I have the right to make sure she's alright."

"Of course, Dr. Foster." Coulson placated her. He then turned to Logan and Ororo, the former who still held Darcy, and the latter who had come to stand by his shoulder. "Thank you for bringing Agent Lewis back. She's an important part of our team." Darcy could've sworn she saw the normally stoic Coulson wink at her.

"I'm glad we could help." Ororo said, stepping forward to address Coulson. "Professor Xavier is very interested in moving forward with the plan to join our teams. I think we can all find many mutual benefits from our partnership."

"My thoughts exactly, Ms. Munroe." Coulson agreed. "Let's get Agent Lewis down to medical, and we can begin debriefing from there."

Coulson and Ororo walked ahead chatting, while Logan held back a few steps with Darcy and Jane.

"Ugh." Darcy sighed, her head dropping back in annoyance.

"I know, I know. But it won't be that bad." Jane said, squeezing Darcy's hand as they walked.

"What?" Logan asked, clearly missing something that both women knew.

"Darcy hates debriefing."

"I _really_ hate debriefing."

Logan nodded his head understandingly, "Can't say I much care for it myself. And I gather SHIELD is much more uptight about that kind of shit than the Professor is."

"Like you wouldn't believe." Darcy rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, I forgot. Logan, this is Jane. Aka, Dr. Foster, astrophysicist extraordinaire and best friend. Jane this is Logan. Aka, Wolverine, X-man and..." she glaced tentatively up at him, and he shrugged as if to say _why not?_ "...my soulmate."

"What!?" Jane nearly shrieked, "Really?"

"Seems so." Logan said, cool as can be.

"Wow, um...congratulations?"

Darcy laughed, and then groaned, clutching her poor ribs.

"Hold on, little lady. We'll get you fixed up." Logan said stepping into the elevator with Ororo and Coulson, and they began descending to the medical floor.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter 2, for your reading pleasure. This one is a little over twice as long as the previous one.
> 
> This fic is definitely going to have at least 7 chapters. And very possibly several more than that. I'm still editing much of what I have already written, and I'll be updating probably at least once a week for a while.

Darcy made it through the debriefing with Director Fury, Coulson, and Agent Hill with relative ease. Her wrists, raw from the shackles, were slathered in salve and wrapped in gauze, and her ribs were taped up, then she was sent up to rest in her apartment. 

Most of the agents, even at her level, only warranted standard SHIELD housing. But Darcy had started out as Jane's (Stark Industries paid) lab assistant, and had quickly been promoted to Lab Manager, once Pepper had seen how efficiently she kept the Scientists Three - as Darcy liked to call Jane, Bruce, and Tony - fed, watered, rested, and organized. And apparently, the title of Lab Manager came with a hefty raise, and an onsite, tower apartment on the Avengers' residential floor. But Darcy also had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with Tony Stark's secret nice side, which came with the desire to keep his friends close. But just try to get the man to admit that, and see how far you get.

Natasha and Pepper had both insisted that she start training once a day. The goal in mind being so that Darcy could, at the very least, defend herself in a pinch. This had led Darcy to discover her very latent ass-kicking abilities. She, according to Natasha, took to her training like a fish to water. Darcy wasn't certain, since the redhead could still land Darcy flat on her back without breaking a sweat. But Natasha had insisted that Darcy, was indeed, a surprisingly talented fighter. And Darcy had to admit, learning to fight was both liberating and frankly, quite fun - even when she was getting her ass handed to her by a scary Russian assassin. 

It was Nat, herself who had recommended Darcy to Coulson, who in turn offered Darcy a position as a junior agent. Darcy flew through her training, and passed all her qualifications, and in just under 3 years had risen to be a level 6 agent.

Darcy had been surprised when she found out about SHIELD partnering with the X-Men, but apparently most of the details had required level 7 clearance. But now that she knew that her soulmate was one of the aformentioned X-Men, she wasn't quite sure what that might do to her clearance on this particular subject. She wasn't above using _slightly_ underhanded methods to get the information she needed.

She spent one whole day at home, watching netflix and eating takeout, before she felt like she was already going stir-crazy. She hadn't even seen Logan following the debriefing, though she knew the X-Men were still around for a few days. 

Darcy had no idea what to make of any of that mess. Logan seemed surprised, but not put off by their universe-arranged match, and she supposed she felt about the same. She knew practically nothing about him, and as scruffy and hairy as he was, he didn't seem like the most cuddly and open kind of person. That and the fact that he was probably at least 20 years her senior - she would have to remember to ask him how old he was. But generally, she had absolutely zero frame of reference with which to measure her feelings on the whole soulmate matter, and sitting at home thinking about it was doing no good at all. 

So two days after her rescue, found her bringing donuts, coffee, and several requisition forms down to Tony's workshop. Darcy, however was surprised to find him with visitors for once. 

He stood hunched over his workbench with a scruffy, blonde young man peering over his shoulder. On the other side, standing back a step with his arms crossed - as he seemed wont to do - was her even scruffier, and very angsty-looking soulmate.

"What the hell, Lewis? You're supposed to be resting!" Tony shouted at her as she waltzed in, ignoring the muttonchopped elephant in the room.

"I am resting."

"This is not resting. This is invading my workshop." Tony said, putting down his work.

Darcy turned her eyes towards the ceiling and spoke, "Jarvis?"

_"Yes Agent Lewis?"_

"Did I wake up at five this morning and go to the gym to have my ass kicked by Natasha for two hours like I normally do?"

_"No ma'am. I believe you did not wake up until approximately seven o'clock this morning."_

"Thanks J-man."

_"You're welcome Agent Lewis."_

She turned her attention back to Tony. "See. Resting." Tony just rolled his eyes. "Besides I brought you coffee and sugary, jelly-filled sustenance so don't get your fancy beard in a twist." Darcy sat the box on the table and took one white paper cup from the carrier, holding it out to him.

"Damnit, Lewis. You always bring the good coffee too." Tony, took the proffered cup, and flipped open the box to check out the selection.

"While you're drinking that, sign these." She added, holding out the requisition forms.

"Ugh, no! I knew it was a trap!" He dropped the glazed pastry he had just picked up back into the box as if it were rigged to explode.

"Tony, if you don't sign these, then we can't order more parts for you to make fun shit out of." She set the stack of papers and a pen on his workbench. "Sign the forms, make fun shit. Or, don't sign the forms, and risk being bored for a week while new parts come in that you could have already had, had you just signed the damn forms when I asked you to, oh-so-nicely, with donuts and caffeine." She raised a challenging eyebrow at him, as if to say _just fucking try me._

Tony sighed. "Ugh, fine. You win." He picked up the pen and started scrawling his name and initials in the appropriate places.

"Wow," Said the blonde beside Tony. "That was impressive."

"Thank you." Said Darcy, offering the young man a friendly smile. "I've gotten hero-wrangling down to a science." Tony was still grumbling as he signed papers, and shot her a half-hearted glare.

The blonde laughed, and stuck his hand out, "We could probably use some of that wrangling power back at the school. I'm Bobby, by the way. I was on the mission to get you the other day, but I didn't get a chance to actually introduce myself."

Darcy took his hand and shook it once, "Darcy Lewis. And thank you. I would've been pretty fucked if y'all hadn't come along when you did." She glanced up at Logan who still had his arms crossed, but the look on his face seemed significantly lighter.

"It was our pleasure, little lady." Logan interjected, joining the conversation at last. The set of his mouth never changed, but she could have sworn she saw a smile touch his eyes.

Tony straightened up, tucking the pen behind his ear. "There, done. Would you like a pound of flesh for the road?"

"Nah, I'm good. But give me back my pen."

Tony tossed it at her, and she had to lunge a little to catch it, which pulled her sore and cracked bones in truly uncomfortable ways. 

"Shit." She gasped, leaning on the glass table while the stars disappeared from her vision. "You're an asshole, Tony."

"Sorry, Lewis. But you should be resting, _in your apartment_." He said, for once using his Mature Adult Capable Of Adulting voice, which he only really pulled out when his soft and caring side was showing.

"Okay, okay. I'm going." Darcy appeased him, wincing a little as she gathered up the now signed forms, and her own coffee cup.

"Here," Logan spoke up, "Let me walk you out."

She was about to protest, and say that she was entirely capable of seeing herself out, thankyouverymuch, but she wasn't sure how many more opportunities she might get to discuss pressing matters with Logan.

They walked out of Tony's workshop, and down the hall a bit, before he said, "That was somethin' back there with Stark. I guess I knew you'd be a pistol."

"I- what?"

He cleared his throat and explained, "I uh- I knew you'd be strong like that. Could just tell from your words. 'Course, I didn't know the context, but they just seemed so damn fearless."

"I, um," She started, taking a nervous sip from her coffee, "I don't even remember what I said, to be honest."

He looked down at her then, "You said, 'I swear to all that is holy, you'd better be the motherfucking cavalry.'"

"Oh." She huffed in amusement, "Huh. Seems about right."

"Went a good long time with the word 'motherfucking' tattooed on me. Got me thinkin' about what you were like. Figured to get paired with a dirty ol' bastard like me, person's gotta have some spunk."

Darcy laughed, "Ha! You have no idea what my mother was like about my words - or your words, rather. A former southern debutante who truly believes in the adage 'The higher the hair the closer to god.' And her sweet little girl was born with the words 'Hey, little lady. Let's blow this shitty excuse for a popsicle stand.'"

It was Logan's turn to laugh.

"Oh, you chuckle at it now, bucko. But every time I got in trouble for anything, she brought it back to the words."

"Christ. Sounds like you had a fun childhood." He couldn't help the sarcastic comment that slipped out, and he latently hoped he wasn't overstepping.

 

"Oh you have no idea," Darcy flew into a sweet-as-sugar southern drawl, "'Oh, sweet pea. I just pray your man isn't as crass as he seems. You certainly need the kind of man to put you on a righteous path.'"

"Holy hell."

"Exactly. But you should've seen the look on her face when I started suggesting that it might be a woman who said those words rather than a man."

Logan laughed again.

They walked for another few seconds in silence, until Darcy's curiosity got the better of her.

"So where are they?"

"Front of my right thigh." He answered. They stepped into the elevator, and Darcy scanned her thumbprint on a panel beside the door then pressed the button for the Avengers' residential floor.

"Where are yours," Logan continued, as the elevator ascended, "if you don't mind me askin'? I didn't see 'em on you the other day, and you weren't exactly wearing all that much."

Darcy shivered as she repressed a wave of memories from the whole ordeal, "Um," she said, gathering her composure, (she really should look into going to see that company therapist Coulson gave her the card for) "They run down the middle of my back."

He nodded at that.

"So, Logan."

"Hmm?" He glanced sideways at her. 

"You got a last name?"

"I'll warn ya' now, there's a bit of a long story behind it, but...uh, my full given name is James Howlett." He ran a hand through his already mussed up hair. "Much prefer 'Logan' though."

"How long of a story are we talking?" She flicked her eyes up at him, curiosity already churning away. 

Logan chuckled, "Remind me, and I'll tell you the whole thing someday."

They made relatively uneventful small talk the rest of the way to her apartment. And at the door she found herself asking him in for "a cup of tea or something," to which he agreed.

"Nice place." He said, taking in the open plan living room and kitchen. "I got to give it to Stark. He's a bit of an ass, but the man's got taste."

"I'll have you know, that most of the decorating in here was done by yours truly." Darcy mentioned, as she struggled to reach the box of tea - which was inconveniently located on a very high shelf - without straining her poor ribs again, "Besides, Pepper's the one that really has taste. She just tends to make Tony look good by association."

Logan's laugh was hearty, and he suddenly appeared behind her, grabbing the tea down easily, and handing it to her. "I've only met that woman once, but that doesn't surprise me at all."

They fell into a slightly more comfortable silence for a moment while Darcy put the kettle on the stove. Logan settled into one of the bar stools against the island, leaning on the counter with his forearms. But before long, Darcy's curiosity demanded to be fed again.

"Okay, I'm sorry. But, I've been dying to know. How old are you?"

Logan's eyes slipped down and lingered on the marble countertop for a moment, before meeting her gaze. "That's an interesting question. That, uh, handy healing mutation of mine makes it pretty hard to die..."

"So..." She prompted him when he hesitated.

He took a breath. "Shit. I must be about a hundred and thirty these days."

Darcy nearly dropped the mug she was holding. "A hun- a hundred and thirty years old." She repeated incredulously.

"Yep."

"Jesus H. Christ. I have got to get some friends who don't have super powers." 

Logan laughed again.

*

Darcy was having nightmares.

They'd started the night she'd returned to the tower. And tonight she'd been back in her World Cultures class, senior year of college - the class she'd had with that god-awful misogynistic professor with the beer-gut, and the bolo tie. She'd been tied down and he was asking her the questions to a final exam she hadn't studied for, and shocking her every time she got an answer wrong. The more she struggled and screamed, the tighter her bonds became. Darcy woke up panting in a cold sweat, with her heart feeling like it was about to burst out of her chest.

She climbed out of bed and left her apartment, heading up to the common floor. Her heart was still racing and she needed some major Ben & Jerry's therapy. They always listened so well.

She was just digging into a pint of Boom Chocolatta, when Thor rounded the corner, yawning and looking for all the world like a sleepy golden retriever. Somehow he made a total bedhead still look somewhat dignified if not completely regal.

"Sup', thunder bro." Darcy waved her spoon at him.

"Lady Darcy!" Thor noticed her with a smile, "May I ask why you are awake at this late hour?" He sat on the bar stool on the other side of the (imported Moroccan - screw you Tony) marble island.

"Couldn't sleep. So I'm working it out with Mr. Ben, and Mr. Jerry." Darcy took a bite to prove her point. "Why are you up?" She asked around a mouthful of ice cream.

"I was awaiting Jane to come to bed. Though she appears to have fallen asleep in her lab once again."

"Crap." Darcy said, as she got up to get Thor a spoon. "That new lab manager is pretty shitty at actually _managing_ the people in the labs." She sat back down and pushed her carton of ice cream across the counter so they could share.

"I must admit," Said Thor, digging into the small carton, "He does seem quite lacking where you excelled at caring for my Jane, and the others."

"You're tellin' me, Goldilocks."

"But you have also excelled in your new appointment with SHIELD. You are a skilled defender of justice." His face was completely earnest.

"Clearly." Darcy deadpanned, "Not to mention I'm apparently super skilled at getting myself into damsel-in-distress type situations."

Thor put his spoon down, and looked her in the eye, "That is simply one recent instance. And we cannot always prevail entirely. It is unwise to consider ourselves infallible. I remember a headstrong and selfish prince of a realm beyond this one, who was once stripped of all his powers - his immortality even - and he became stronger for it."

Darcy couldn't hold back the eye roll she gave at his admission of emotional growth, "Yeah, yeah, Aesop. 'What does not kill us,' and all that."

"And unless I am mistaken, I believe you met your soul's mate through this trial. That cannot be such a terrible thing." Thor glanced at her out the corner of his eye, as he took another bite. The poor boy (demi-god...whatever) thought he was slick.

Darcy sighed. There was no stopping the Avengers Tower Gossip Mill. "Yeah, we met. And he's nice - to me at least - but I still hardly know him. I think we can at least be friends, though." She licked her spoon clean, "He definitely gets my snark. So that's points."

"I understand your hesitations, but if I may express how truly fulfilling it can be to find the mate to your soul. I have known such happiness since finding my Jane, and the unhappiness I have felt at the hands of others..." Darcy knew he was referring mostly to his estrangement with Loki, which was still a very raw nerve, "That has been bearable because of her."

"She's the Beyoncé to your Jay-Z." Darcy said, breaking into a slightly goofy smile.

"That seems an apt comparison, yes." Thor grinned. For once Darcy had used a Midgardian cultural reference that he truly understood. The big guy was - mostly thanks to her carefully composed playlists - obsessed with not only Beyoncé, but Taylor Swift, and One Direction as well.

"But, even as so many find love with their soul's true companion, you should not feel pressured into loving this man. I have seen the happiness that can grow from even such a match in friendship only." Thor inclined his head towards Darcy, "And even then, a love borne by friendship can be one of the strongest bonds in all the realms."

"You know, you're right, big guy. I feel like there definitely is a lot of pressure to immediately fall in love when you find your soulmate. It's like there's this cloud of romantic expectation hovering over everything we do, and it can be awkward." She mused.

"You are strong, little sister. Do not let others dictate how you fare in your own life's journey."

Darcy set her spoon down and sighed, "Yeah. Thanks for the bro-talk, Thor. Feel free to finish the ice cream. I think I'm gonna head back to my place, see if I can sleep at all."

"Rest well, lightning sister." He put a hand on her shoulder as she passed him. "If you should ever need to talk again..."

Darcy turned towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck, "I know where to find you." He copied her embrace, squeezing her gently before releasing her again.

Thor was the best elephant-sized puppy Darcy could ever ask the cosmos for. She'd been an only child, but Thor was definitely the brother she'd never had and never realized she needed.

*

"'Sup, Son of Coul?" Darcy knocked on Agent Coulson's door, "You wanted to see me?"

"Agent Lewis, come in." He motioned towards the chair across from his desk and she sat.

She turned down his offer of tea or coffee, and tucked her legs beneath her. Just because she was a grown adult didn't mean she had to sit like one.

"So what's up, Charlie?"

"Agent Lewis, it has come to my attention that you have recently come in contact with your soulmate."

"Oh, that."

"Well, normally, in such a case all I would ask is that you update your personnal file so that your soulmate could be contacted in case of a medical emergency." Darcy nodded. 

Soulmates were often listed along with next of kin, even in platonic situations. They were usually automatically granted family rights in medical emergencies.

"However," Coulson continued, "Your case happens to be a special one."

"I just can't ever make anything easy, can I, Phil?" She baited.

"As your soulmate is also working alongside SHIELD as part of the Avengers/X-Men partnership, he will automatically be granted Level 7 clearance. I have suggested to Director Fury that we grant you Level 7 clearance for all matters relating to the merger, and he has agreed." Coulson, shifted back in his chair a bit, "This won't grant you Level 7 clearance for anything else until you reach full Level 7 status. But you can remain in the loop about matters relating to Mr. Howlett and his team."

"Uh, thanks. That seems pretty..." Darcy thought for a second, "...decent?"

"We do try occasionally, Agent Lewis." The mirth in the man's eyes was gone in a flash, but Darcy caught it in that fleeting moment.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter's a bit longer, but I wrote a lot of exposition and character background into this one.
> 
> You may notice that the particular characters I chose to be on Logan's team are mostly from XM:DoFP. I really liked the way that team worked together, and I like thinking that Logan can serve as a mentor to a couple of those younger kids.
> 
> That being said, my knowledge of the X-Men exists _mostly_ from the movies, but a bit from watching the cartoons as a kid, and a bit from the tons of internet research I've been doing for this story. So if the way that I've written these characters seems a bit like a mashup of movieverse/comicverse, that is why. Apologies in advance.
> 
> Also, this chapter has some mild descriptions of domestic abuse. But they occur before the first page break, so please read as cautioned.

The X-Men returned to Westchester the next day. But Darcy was feeling slightly better about her situation with Logan. He might not be nominated for Miss Congeniality any time soon, but at least they got along well enough, and he actually seemed to appreciate her penchant for extreme sarcasm.

Darcy was still out of commission for a few more weeks while her body stitched itself back together, but she spent that time getting her scientists back in working order. The guy that had been hired to take over as Lab Manager clearly didn't have half a clue what he was doing. Jane's work station was entirely out of Poptarts, and she had unfiled paperwork covering nearly every available surface. Darcy spent two weeks reorganizing everything, and re-tutoring Tom, her replacement, until she was sure he could follow her carefully developed system.

("Tommy, you have to treat them like toddlers. Assume they have no idea how to fill out their own paperwork, get them to eat every few hours, and make sure they go down for naps when they get cranky."

"My name's just Tom."

"I think you're missing the point here, Tommy.")

"Hey Lewis, how's the shrink?" Tony asked, waltzing into Jane's lab while sipping on one of his green mystery smoothies. He claimed they were good, but Darcy just couldn't commit herself to that kind of health.

"Not terrible." Darcy said, rolling her chair back to glare at him, "I'm not even going to bother asking how you know about that."

"I'm omnipotent." He said with a cocky smirk. He crossed the lab and peered over Jane's shoulder where she was soldering something with a lot of small pieces and wires.

"No," Darcy corrected him, "You're just unforgivably nosy and have a nearly all knowing AI at your service."

 _"I would prefer to stay out of this argument, if you don't mind._ Came Jarvis' posh voice.

"Sorry, J-man."

_"Quite alright, Agent Lewis."_

"I'm just checking to make sure that the good doctor is helping to screw your head back on straight. Can't have a crazy person living in my building."

"Tony, YOU live in your building. It's a little late for that."

"Haha." Tony laughed sarcastically, "But really. You feeling better, Lewis? Starting to get some actual sleep again?"

"Yeah, a little. Thanks Tony." For all their teasing and baiting, they really did care about each other deep down.

"Don't mention it. So whatchya workin' on, Foster?" He turned his attention over to Jane and her newest project.

Darcy had been seeing the psychiatrist that Coulson had recommended for the last two weeks. During which time they had had four surprisingly helpful sessions.

Dr. Reichert had begun by simply asking Darcy to talk about herself - just anything that she felt inclined to share. Darcy had appreciated that she didn't have to jump straight into talking about her capture and subsequent torture. At first she had just talked about her family, and her schooling, working for Jane, becoming an agent, and how much she enjoyed her job. She talked a bit about her relationships with the other people in the tower, including her fellow agents, Agent Coulson, and her friendships with the Avengers. But the doctor made her feel so comfortable sharing things that by the end of her second session she was talking about the kidnapping ordeal, and meeting Logan.

"When you told me about the advice that Thor gave you - about not feeling pressured to fall in love with Logan - that seemed to really strike a chord with you." Dr. Reichert crossed her legs absently.

Darcy shifted in her seat, "Yeah, I guess."

"Any idea why?"

"I- I guess I just know that finding your soulmate doesn't guarantee happiness."

"And why do you think that?" The older woman made a note on the yellow legal pad she held in her lap.

"I don't have to look very far to see that. My parents were a mess." Darcy figeted with her hands, "They were soulmates, but they definitely didn't have a fairytale romance."

Dr. Reichert inclined her head with interest, and Darcy continued after a beat. "My dad was an alcoholic, and he used to get real drunk at night. I don't remember everything because I was so young - I must have been about four or five at the time - but I remember them screaming at each other after I was supposed to be in bed. And then it became about my dad screaming at my mom, and..." Darcy took a breath, "... I remember being in her room, while she was getting ready for church. And she would be trying to cover these huge bruises with makeup."

"Did she ever talk to you about it?"

"I think I asked her a few times how she got them, but she would just brush it off saying things like, 'Oh, mommy's so clumsy,' or something like that to dismiss it. But even at that age I knew that my dad was hitting her. I could hear that at night too."

"Did your father ever try to hurt you?" Dr. Reichert asked seriously.

"Only once." Darcy swallowed, dredging up the memory, "It was my sixth birthday and my mom had gotten me this brand new ruffley dress to wear for my party. And when we were eating cake I dropped some, and got bright pink icing all down the front of my dress. And my dad got so pissed, that he pulled me out of my chair by my arm, dragged me upstairs, and then slapped me so hard I saw stars."

The doctor made another note on her legal pad, and looked back up at Darcy, "How did your mother react to that."

"I think she cried." Darcy recalled, "But she was too afraid to really yell at him about it. She sent all my friends home right after that, and I had to open my presents alone."

"Did your father ever get help for his drinking and abuse problems?"

Darcy gave a dry laugh, "The only help he ever got was the car accident that killed him a year later. He was driving drunk and hit a tree."

"Call me crazy, but you seem a little bitter about his death." That was Darcy's favorite thing about Dr. Reichert. There was nothing cold or clinical about her demeanour. Even while remaining professional, she could toss a little bit of sarcasm Darcy's way, which Darcy absolutely responded to. Dr. Reichert probably knew that too, which was why she did it.

"I sometimes think that it makes me a horrible person for thinking that the worst thing about his death was that they had to cut down the tree he crashed into. He couldn't just leave this world before hurting one last living thing."

"And are you afraid of Logan ever becoming that way?"

"I don't think so. I mean, I know he's got demons. You don't live to be a one hundred and thirty year old, crime fighting mutant without some. But he fights for the right side of things. I can't ever see him losing sight of that line long enough to hurt me like that. I mean, hell, he was saving me when we met."

"You mentioned that before. You've also mentioned the nightmares you're having. Does he ever show up in those dreams?"

"Not so far."

"I want you to start keeping a dream journal. You don't have to write down massive amounts of detail. Just the highlights."

"You're giving me homework?" Darcy frowned slightly.

"Hey, I'm not making you do math problems." Dr. Reichert raised an eyebrow.

Darcy laughed, and nodded her assent to the assignment.

*

By the time Darcy was cleared to resume her daily training, word of her personal life had gotten around to the rest of the team. Most were just surprised that the universe had seen fit to match anyone with Logan in the first place. 

"So," Natasha broached the subject one morning while sparring with Darcy, "You and Logan."

"I know right?" Darcy dodged a kick to the stomach. "Definitely didn't see that one coming."

"Madam Universe is a sneaky bitch. How's that going?"

"Um," Darcy ducked under Nat's leg, and tried unsuccessfully to flip her, "We're civil."

Nat landed Darcy on the mats. "Just civil? Really?" She raised a perfectly disbelieving eyebrow.

"Okay, I guess it's a bit better than that. We're friendly. He's kind of sweet to me." Darcy sat up and reached for her water bottle at the edge of the mat. "I think we're both just trying to adjust. And we don't really know each other yet." 

Natasha _hmm_ 'ed, and took a swig of water from her own bottle.

Darcy looked up, "But is it bad that I can't help picturing how ripped he probably is under all the leather and flannel?"

"He does have a very backwoods thing going on." Natasha actually laughed.

"I swear, he's like the Brawny paper towel guy, only deadlier."

Natasha laughed a little harder and Darcy put a mental check in the win column, for making the Black Widow laugh twice in an hour.

*

Another week later found the two women in much the same place, and for once Darcy was actually holding her own. She was finally starting to get back in shape, and she was having a particularly good day. But leave it to the universe to throw her for a loop. She felt other people enter the gym, but it didn't distract her until she heard Natasha greet the newcomers.

"Professor. Good to see you." The corners of Natasha's mouth ticked up with what seemed like genuine affection. Darcy's attention flew away like Thor riding the lightning. Natasha took that moment to swipe Darcy's legs out from under her, landing her, once again, flat on the mats.

"Nat, for as often as you get me on my back, you could at least buy me dinner once in a while." She said as soon as her breath had returned. 

"I bought you dinner last week. _And_ margaritas." Natasha justified, throwing Darcy a wink as she stepped off the mats.

Meh. It was true. Once a month the ladies all went out for Girls' Night. And Natasha was liberal with the SHIELD company card on these nights. She justified it as "Team Bonding." 

Darcy finally felt her breath return to her lungs and she sat up so she could turn her attention to the guests in the room.

Pepper was standing just inside the door to the gym next to an older bald gentleman in a three piece suit who sat in a state-of-the-art wheelchair. Beside them was a handful of X-Men. There were two young women, and three other young men besides Bobby, and Logan. Bobby gave her a friendly wave which she returned.

The man in the wheelchair, who Darcy now realized was Professor Xavier, was greeting Natasha like an old friend.

Pepper was explaining that several of the X-Men would be staying at the tower for a few weeks, while the two teams got acclimated to training and fighting along side each other. Darcy stood up and wandered over, wiping her sweaty brow with the back of her arm.

"Ah, Professor," Pepper motioned to Darcy to come closer, "This is Agent Darcy Lewis."

The professor held out his hand, which Darcy took and gave a professionally firm shake.  
"It's nice to finally meet you, Miss Lewis. I've been hearing quite a bit about you." And then, _"Mostly from Logan as a matter of fact. You seem to have made a very positive impression."_

The second part seemed to appear inside Darcy's mind, without the Professor moving his lips once. The group chuckled a little at the way her eyes widened when she realized he was speaking directly into her mind. She had known he was a telepath, but that didn't prepare her for hearing someone inside her head.

Logan took a step forward, "Yeah, Chuck tends to do that. You get used to it."

A moment later Natasha begged off, claiming that she and Darcy still had training to do, and Pepper resumed her tour. Logan had half a mind to stay behind and continue watching them beat up on each other. While Natasha clearly could take down Darcy every time, he could tell that the younger woman could hold her own. Darcy certainly didn't lack for skill, that was for damn sure. She would definitely be able to take down the average goon, ten times over. And the sight of her in spandex wasn't exactly unwelcome.

Pepper had led the group out of the gym facilities and up to the residential floor where their team would be staying. It was one level below the floor where most of the Avengers lived. One floor below where Logan knew Darcy lived.

Christ. She was gonna get him killed, she had him so distracted. 

Pepper showed them how each apartment was marked with a nameplate, and explained that while each of the individual apartments had their own full kitchens, the Avengers tended to congregate and eat most of their meals in the communal kitchen and dining area two floors up. That floor apparently was also home to an enormous common space with couches, and an enormous entertainment and video game system. At that, Logan felt Bobby perk up beside him. Bobby was always playing those insipid games, and had beaten him a thousand times over at Mario Kart and many others.

He had to hand it to Stark. The man knew how to design a living space.

After Pepper had concluded their tour, they had all located their respective apartments via the nameplates. Pepper had mentioned that the most of the rest of the tower's residents would be having dinner together on the common floor later that evening. But that gave them most of the rest of the day to settle into their new digs.

Logan's apartment looked nearly identical to Darcy's only reversed, since it was on the opposite side of the hall. The open kitchen was loaded with a catalog of high-tech, stainless steel appliances (that would probably never get much use). The frankly beautiful hard wood flooring in the kitchen continued out into the living area, where there was a couch and a few arm chairs that surrounded a sleek glass coffee table and a few feet beyond it, an even sleeker television. 

He took the time to explore the rest of his new digs, and was equally impressed by the bedroom and the stupidly enormous bathroom (Why the hell would anyone ever need that much space to shit, shower 'n shave?).

Back in the living room, he flopped down on the couch ( _maybe a little lumpy_ he thought), and pulled out a cigar and his trusty Zippo from his shirt pocket.

 _"I regret to inform you, sir, that smoking is banned from all indoor areas of Stark Tower."_ The posh voice from above startled Logan so much that (with an expletive or two) he dropped the cigar on the floor. It wasn't the first time he had heard Jarvis speak, but it was the first time that the AI had ever directed anything at Logan in particular.

"Christ. You scared the shit outta me!" Logan said, leaning forward to retrieve the cigar from the floor.

_"My deepest appologies, sir._

He sat back for a moment to calm his heart rate.

_"If I may, sir. You do have access to the open-air balcony on the common floor, should you wish to smoke without leaving the premises."_

"Thanks. Good to know."

Logan tucked the end of his cigar between his teeth, and stood, heading now for the common floor. But when the elevator doors opened, he was surprised to find a freshly showered and changed Darcy happily chatting with Bobby in the kitchen. She glanced his way when he walked in, and gave him an easy smile. 

"Hey Kill Bill. Get settled in alright?"

He chuckled at the nickname, "Yes ma'am."

"Darcy was just telling me about some of Jarvis' better features." Bobby cut in, "You know he can save all your favorite movies and music to playlists like a giant personal hard drive?"

"Oh really? So far all he's done for me is kick me outta my apartment."

_"I am quite sorry about that, Logan, sir. But I am programmed to enforce building-wide policies."_

"Uh oh," Darcy teased, "What rules were you breaking?"

"Apparently, the tower is a smoke-free zone." Logan replied, rolling his eyes.

"Ooh, shit." Bobby made a face, "Have fun with that one, old man."

"Laugh it up, bub'." Logan shot the younger man a look.

"You know," Darcy crossed her arms, and gave him a semi-serious look, "second-hand smoke is pretty bad for us non-immortals."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm takin' it outside, little lady. Nothin' to worry about." Logan nodded at her, then crossed the room to the balcony doors and stepped outside.

He flipped open his Zippo, and toasted the cigar before lighting it, then leaned with his elbows on the railing of the balcony. The sounds of the city floated up from the street, stories below. His shoulders tensing every time he heard police or ambulance siren - an occupational hazard after so many decades (or centuries, even) spent trying to protect people.

After a few minutes, he heard the door open, and another person leaned against the railing beside him.

"Where'd Bobby go?" He asked.

"Went to work out. He wanted to test out the gym with a few of the others before lunch." She replied.

Logan nodded, and took a puff of his cigar.

"Speaking of which," She continued, "Can I get you something for lunch? I was just about to make up a tray to take down to the labs. The Scientists Three tend to disappear for days if someone doesn't keep them fed and watered regularly."

"Don't they have assistants for that kinda thing?"

"Technically, but he's relatively useless. It used to be my job, so I've got it down to an art form. Tommy tries, god bless him, but you can't improve on perfection, I guess." Darcy said a little smugly.

It achieved her desired effect when he laughed at her self assurance.

"How'd you end up switchin' gigs in the first place?" He asked, briefly tapping the ash off his cigar.

"Opportunity, mostly. I started training a bit with Nat, just to be able to fend for myself. But I guess I was a bit of a natural. She brought me to Coulson's attention, and he offered me the job." She explained, "I never really saw myself doing anything like this, to be honest."

"Wha'dya mean?"

"I mean, I majored in political science. I never really knew exactly what I wanted to do, and so I changed my major four times in two years. But eventually I settled on poly-sci because I knew that, at the very least, I wanted to help people. Affect some kind of positive change in the world, you know?"

He nodded. He knew.

"But when Coulson offered me the opportunity to be an agent, I finally saw how I could make that happen." Darcy turned and leaned her back against the railing, crossing her arms over her chest, "I like being able to help people. I've rescued people, and taken down some real assholes. I'm not nearly as badass as you guys, or the Avengers, but I can hold my own, I guess."

"From what I saw this morning with Natasha, you can more than hold your own."

"Ha!" She laughed harshly, "Nat kicks my ass every time."

"Doesn't she kick everyone's ass?"

"So?"

"So if beating her is impossible, but you can at least keep up with her - How long were y'all at it before we showed up this morning?"

"About forty minutes. Why?"

"Shit. I'd be surprised if anyone else I know could go forty minutes against her."

Darcy angled her chin up a bit, and looked up at him from the corner of her eye.

"Hmm. What about you?"

"What about me what?" He asked, taking another puff, and holding it between his teeth.

"How do you hold up? Think I could take you?"

He laughed and almost lost his cigar. "Seriously?"

"Oh come on. I bet you and I would be a great matchup."

"Well the universe seems to think so..."

"That she does."

They were quiet for a minute after that. Letting it sink in deep. But like she did with all silences, Darcy felt a compulsion to fill it.

"You taught back in Westchester, right?"

"Yeah, why'dya ask?"

"I was just wondering who's taking your place back at the school while you're here."

"Well, Storm's holdin' down the fort without Chuck there for a few days. But there's another teacher, named Bishop who's fillin' in for a while. He was part of the team that came to get you." Logan scratched his beard thoughtfully with his free hand. "We've been workin' with that team for a while now, but we had to change things up a bit to join this lot."

"Are they all former students?"

Logan tapped a bit more ash from the end of his cigar, "Most are still are students in one way or another, I figure. But Bobby and Kitty have been done with real schoolin' for a while. Same with Pete."

"What about the others? A couple of them look pretty young."

"Roberto's almost done with school - he'll be eighteen real soon. But, yeah, Clarice and James still have a couple of years to go. But we give them a lot of autonomy at the school. Most of 'em figured out long ago how most of the world sees them. It's gettin' better in some ways, but some of them have abilities that can really help. So if they want to fight for the good things, and they keep their heads on straight we tend to let 'em. Besides, Storm's got 'em video calling into some of their classes to keep up."

"That makes a lot of sense." Darcy mused leaning on the railing beside him. They were quiet for a moment until his stomach growled loudly, making them both chuckle.

Darcy pushed off the railing and went to head back in, "Come on. Put that thing out and I'll make us some lunch."

Logan stubbed out his cigar on the palm of his hand and dropped it in his shirt pocket as the burn already began to heal over, and followed her inside.

*

Dinner that night was a crowded event. It was the entire Avengers team (besides Clint, who was on a mission in Pakistan, or Pittsburgh, or something) plus the entire visiting team of X-Men, as well as Pepper, Darcy, and Jane. Natasha and Darcy cooked - eight pans of lasagna and about a pound and a half of garlic bread - and had no leftovers.

Darcy smiled as she looked down the table. Bobby and Kitty were deeply entrenched in a conversation with Tony, while Pepper rolled her eyes every time something particularly arrogant came tumbling out of his mouth. Pete and Steve, sat just down from her, talking about art. Apparently the younger man (though they both physically looked about the same age) was also a talented artist, and they were busy comparing the pros and cons of different brands of sketching pencils. Clarice was down at the opposite end of the table, trying to explain her powers to Bruce and Jane; The former of whom was listening intently, and nodding politely, and the latter who was sitting with her mouth hanging open, staring at the young teleporter like she was the eighth wonder of the world. The two teams were really getting along like gangbusters, which Darcy figured boded well for them starting to train together in the coming days.

As soon as dinner was finished, Bruce had volunteered to clean up, while Tony and Jane scuttled off to bury themselves in their labs. With Darcy shouting after them that she would come retrieve them if they didn't surface by midnight. 

Logan came up behind her, "How are you gonna get 'em to surrender this time?" He had seen her in action earlier when she had taken their lunch down to them, and had to literally threaten Tony with a Nerf-Gun to get him to take a break and eat.

Darcy turned around to face him, "Why Mister Wolverine," She crossed her arms and gave him a teasing look, "whatever do you mean by that?"

"Well, Miss Lewis, you always seem to have somethin' up your sleeve to keep the troops in line." He matched her teasing tone. 

"What can I say?" She replied, "I'm on a mission from Thor. We're gettin' the band back together."

He looked at her strangely. "Band?"

"The Blues Brothers?"

"You mean, the guys with the suits and sunglasses?"

Darcy looked up at him as if he had just grown a second head.

"The Blues Brothers movie! Only one of the most ridiculously over budget, cocaine-fueled pieces of cinematic magic ever created!"

"I've never seen it. I'm guessin' it's good?" Logan shrugged.

"Good?" Darcy sputtered, "Goo- Oh my god. Come with me." She grabbed his hand and started dragging him to the elevator. "We are fixing this. I am going to fix this."

Logan smiled internally at her manic display. She was pretty damn cute when she was flustered by something. 

Darcy dragged him all the way to her apartment and after she had shut the door, she shoved him none-too-gently toward the couch.  
"Sit." She commanded. 

"Yes ma'am." He said giving her a sarcastic salute.

"You joke, Ginsu, but this is a serious situation." She admonished him, while pulling up her personal library of movies on the giant screen. "Do you at least know who Dan Akroyd and John Belushi are?"

His blank stare answered her question for her.

"OH MY GOD! You've lived through the best parts of history, but it's like you've missed all the important shit!" 

She was adorable when she was worked up like this.

Darcy cued up a movie from her list and it started, but she didn't sit down. Instead she stalked past him. He had been hoping she would sit down next to him on the couch, and so he was a little disappointed.

"Where are you going? I thought we were watchin' this together?" He called gruffly after her.

"Keep your pants on blade-slinger, I'm just making some popcorn." She replied with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Satisfied with her answer, he turned back to the screen. So far the film seemed to be mostly long shots of an industrial skyline just before dawn.

By the time the scene changed to a man being released from prison, Darcy had plopped down next to Logan with a bowl of buttery popcorn and two beers.

As the movie played, she would occasionally lean towards him and give him tidbits of trivia about the movie or the filming. Clearly this was a film she loved and had seen many times. Before long, he had stretched an arm out behind her on the back of the couch, and she had leaned in closer to his side. It was easy for him to turn his head and catch a whiff of her shampoo. She smelled a bit like citrus, and something floral (Hey, he had a enhanced scent receptors, but shit, he wasn't a fucking botanist).

Logan realized suddenly, how natural this felt. How normal. It was still new and very different, for sure, but he could easily get used to this. 

*

The following day was the first day that the X-Men and the Avengers began training together.

More points to Stark, with his state-of-the-art obstacle course. It was designed to change obstacles and challenges as desired and took up an entire floor below the gym level, though the ceiling was twice as high. Certain parameters could be input into a holoscreen and then physical obstacles would shift and rise up out of the floor, or descend from the ceiling to change the landscape. 

For now, they had chosen to input a scenario from the most recent attack on the city. It wasn't new information, but the two teams needed to each get a sense of how the other group fought and handled various elements in the field. Barton had returned late the night before from his solo op, so the only one not participating in the group training was Bruce. But the X-team had been assured of the most important details of his fighting technique; He pretty much just smashed everything in sight and took vague direction - don't get in his way. 

For this scenario, sections of urban buildings shifted and protruded out of the walls. Mailboxes, lightpoles, and full-sized cars rose out of the floor until the course looked like an entire city block. Metal droids flew down from the ceiling and began shooting brightly colored paintballs.

The Avengers went first.

Clint immediately scaled the tallest building to get the best vantage point. Cap directed Thor and Natasha to cover the ground with him, while Tony flew the suit over the street.

They worked almost perfectly in sync with each other, and in less than thirty minutes, all of the threats had been neutralized.

They made their way back out of the course, sweating and breathing a little heavy as the scenario reset itself behind them. Logan uncrossed his arms and made his way up to Captain Rogers.

"That's a pretty good team you got there, Rogers."

"Thank you, Captain Howlett. I'm excited to see what your team looks like in action." The super soldier replied sincerely, strapping his shield onto his back. Steve hadn't yet been able to kick the habit of referring to Logan as he had known him during World War II. And knowing that he was one of the few mainstays the man had left from his own time, Logan was reluctant to correct him. 

Logan directed his team to enter the course, and began giving them tactical instructions. Bobby and Roberto climbed to high positions at opposite sides of the course, with James covering the former, and Peter the latter from the ground. Kitty and Clarice began by taking up positions in the center of the course, back to back where they could get a decent vantage point on the whole field.

The droids began attacking, and the team began their defence. Bobby blasted drones out of the air with ice, and James smashed them as they fell to the ground, before leaping up to grab hold of a drone that swooped in close to Kitty. He punched a hole in the top of the droid and ripped out a handful of wires until the droid was disabled. Kitty thanked him by grabbing his arm and rolling them both straight through a nearby mailbox to crouch on the other side as another bot began firing at them from above.

Clarice was using her portals to redirect the droids to they would fire at each other - though they shot paintballs, their sensors detected the hits and they dropped to the ground - or to redirect them to where Logan could access them and slice straight the metal and wires. Peter was alternately leaping around and tearing droids apart, and tossing them high into the air where Roberto could hit them with a solar blast.

Logan estimated that it took their team only minutes longer than the Avengers to take down all the droids. When the last bot had been destroyed, the X-Men stepped off the course.

"Looks like you've got yourself a pretty great team there, too." Steve remarked, offering his hand to Logan. Around them, various members of both teams commented on each other's capabilities - asking questions, or in Tony's case, making borderline rude jokes. Thor clapped Peter on the shoulder, making a remark about his biological armor, and wondering out loud if his metal skin was conductive. But in that moment both teams felt the pieces of something good shift into place. 

Logan retracted his claws, and shook the other man's hand, bringing a hand to his shoulder in appreciation and cracking a rare smile.

"I think we've the makin's of a pretty good alliance here, Cap." He observed.

"I think you're right." Steve matched his smile.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay for new chapters! 
> 
> Thank you so much to every single one of you who is reading this story, and especially to everyone who has left me kudos or comments! It's always nice to feel a little internet love.
> 
> So, without further ado...

Darcy needed to make cookies.

Up until high school, every time she'd ever had boy drama growing up, her mother had pulled her into the kitchen and together they made a batch of cookies from scratch. And once they had a plate full of warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies sitting in front of them, Darcy would tell her mom all about whatever stupid boy had asked her out, or kissed her, or broken her heart.

When Jane was pining over Thor in New Mexico, Darcy made cookies. When Jane was freaking out over Thor being in New York while they had been sent away to Tromsø, Darcy made cookies. When Ian the Intern had been a thing for a very short while, and then suddenly not been a thing very soon after, Darcy made cookies.

And so now, in light of recent events, the need to bake had finally caught up with Darcy once more.

She made her way to the kitchen on the common floor, much preferring the openness to being cooped up in her own apartment. Darcy didn't bother with a recipe, just pulling ingredients out of the large pantry and pulling bowls out of cupboards.

She was just measuring out portions of flour and brown sugar when Steve rounded the corner, looking fresh out of a post workout shower.

"What's shakin', Rocket Pop?" Darcy asked Steve, who looked up at the greeting and smiled.

"Hey Darcy! What are you making?"

"Chocolate chip cookies. Wanna help?"

"Sure." He agreed.

"Good. I could use some extra muscle for mixing." Darcy pointed to a bowl of batter on the counter. Steve chuckled and began stirring in chocolate chips as she instructed. They worked around each other for a few minutes, chatting about various things, until Darcy's insatiable curiosity, once again, made itself known.

"You ever find your soulmate, Steve?"

He stilled for a moment, before continuing to scoop spoonfuls of dough onto a cookie sheet.

"Yeah doll, I did."

"You know, they never mention any of that in the history books?"

"Really?"

"Really. We did a whole unit on the you and the Howling Commandos when I was in school, but the books never mentioned if you had a soulmark."

"I suppose we didn't talk about it much with the troops. It was... just for us, really..."

"It was Bucky wasn't it?" Darcy placed a comforting hand on his arm. She knew little more than what the history books had told her of Steve and Bucky's friendship, and Bucky's loss during the war. But she did know that Steve missed his friend - and now she knew, soulmate - terribly.

Steve sighed and pulled her in for a hug. "Yeah, Darce. It was Bucky."

"You miss him."

"Yeah, doll, I do. Everyday." He pulled back and went back to the cookie sheets, picking two up and placing them in the oven. He shut the oven door, and turned back to face her again. "Make sure you really appreciate it, Darce. Having your soulmate around - it's easy to take for granted. But in our line of work..." He trailed off.

"Life's too short."

Steve sighed again, his eyes far away, "Something like that."

Darcy forced a smile and changed the subject. Suggesting that they go watch a movie while they waited on the cookies to bake. Steve seemed able to push away his wistful nostolgia as they sat in the squishy couches surrounding the entertainment system. Darcy had Jarvis pull up Dirty Dancing. Because if there was one foolproof thing she knew of to cure sadness, it's name was Patrick Swayze.

Several minutes into the movie, Steve was hooked, so Darcy got up to pull the cookies from the oven and put two more pans of dough in to bake (because cooking in Avenger's Tower always needed to be done in mass quantities to satisfy the many super soldier and god-like metabolisms of its residents).

As Darcy transfered the hot cookies to a cooling rack, she was glad she had decided to undertake her usual ritual. She felt as if had gotten so many pieces of advice from so many sources, and while none of it exactly conflicted, it was still a lot to process. She didn't want to feel pressured to fall in love with Logan as Thor had advised. But thanks to her sessions with Dr. Reichert she also knew that her hesitation for intimacy - while certainly not unfounded - came from an unfair place, and she shouldn't let those hesitations stop her from wanting more. And she was starting to think she did want more. Also, now she wanted to find Logan, wherever he was in the building, and keep him close until she could chase away her guilt at having her soulmate so close and alive, while Steve had felt such profound loss. 

Darcy was startled out of her thoughts by the sound of Steve's phone ringing, which he had left on the counter. She picked up the phone to bring it to him in the other room and peeked at the caller I.D. in the process. It was Coulson, but it wasn't the regular Assemble alert.

She handed the phone to Steve, who stood up and answered, and took it into the hallway by the elevators. Darcy turned her attention back to the movie for a few minutes, though she could still hear Steve in the background, using his Serious Captain Voice with Coulson.

And when he returned he had his Captain America face on.

"What was that about?"

"That was Agent Coulson. He's got a new assignment and he wants me to come in for a brief. Sounds like a long one."

"Oh. Sure. He say where?"

"D.C." He glanced up at the screen where Patrick Swayze was waist-deep in the lake, lifting Jennifer Grey over and over again. "Sorry, we didn't get to finish the movie. I really like it."

"It's cool, Steveo. We'll raincheck it for later. Take some cookies with you though, okay?"

"Yes ma'am." He gave her a mock salute before he left.

*

Dinner that night was as crowded ever, requiring them to bring up a few extra chairs to surround the long table. Bruce had volunteered to make several Indian curry dishes he had learned to make while he was living in Calcutta. Logan and Steve entered at the same time, talking seriously about something, before Logan broke off and came over to sit at the empty place beside Darcy. He gave her hand a squeeze as he settled in.

"Hey Logan. What was all that with Steve?"

He reached for a bowl of chicken tikka masala to fill his plate, "Coulson has us goin' to D.C. for a few weeks to check out a situation there."

"Oh." Darcy couldn't help but be disappointed. Wasn't that just the way of things? She had only just begun to realize she wanted more with Logan, and now he was going to be leaving for several weeks.

"When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow at oh' six hundred."

Darcy nodded and turned her attention back to picking at her food. Logan couldn't be entirely sure, but she almost looked disappointed.

"Gonna miss me, little lady?"

"Yeah." He smiled a little at her immediate response, "I mean, I feel like we just started to hit a good rhythm, you know?" She explained.

"Oh, I know. But it's just gonna be a couple'a weeks." He covered her hand again with his own, interlacing their fingers. "I'll be back before you know it."

Following dinner, some of the group broke off to go train, or work on various other projects. Though most everyone else stuck around to break out a few stupidly expensive bottles of wine, and rest of the cookies Darcy had baked earlier in the day. They settled around the entertainment system and watched as Bobby challenged Clint to play against him in Mario Kart.

Bobby soundly and cheerfully kicked Clint's ass, to the amusement of everyone gathered.

Darcy took a turn, and while she was usually pretty good (she had beaten Clint a time or two, herself), she was no match for Bobby. Eventually she conceded defeat, and settled in next to Logan on one of the couches with a large glass of wine in hand. Logan draped his arm across her shoulders and she leaned in a bit closer to his side, tucking her feet up and under her for good measure. They watched as Natasha took on Bobby, which seemed a pretty even match up.

Darcy was going to miss Logan. She had meant it when she told him that. This kind of thing - the two of them snuggled together on the couch, however innocently - was just starting to feel comfortable to her. She wanted to be open to any possibility with him, but it felt frustrating that he was going to be leaving so suddenly again.

Patience, funnily enough, had never quite been her strongest attribute.

 

*

The next morning, Darcy was just getting ready to head to the gym, when there was a knock on her door. She crossed her apartment to answer it, grabbing her water bottle which sat on the kitchen island as she passed it. When she opened the door, Logan was standing there in his leather jumpsuit with an unlit cigar clutched between his teeth.

"Hey, little lady." He greeted her, taking the cigar out of his mouth.

"Logan, what's up?"

"We're headin' out in a minute. Should be back in a couple'a weeks or so. Just wanted to say, bye."

"Oh, yeah. Thanks." She reached for his hand, and intertwined their fingers. "Be safe, okay?"

He chuckled lightly and gave her hand a squeeze, "I'll do that. But same goes for you. Any work you gotta do, you be safe too. Got it?"

"I will."

He leaned down and kissed her forehead, lingering for a moment, before untangling their fingers and making his way back toward the elevator. Darcy leaned against her door and watched him until the elevator doors closed, taking him to the rooftop helepad.

Darcy sighed. In the words of Natasha: Madam Universe was one sneaky bitch.

She spent the rest of the morning training. Natasha had been sent on the same mission with Steve and Logan, so Darcy spent a few hours at the gun range, honing her aim with her various weapons. After that she made her way into the gym and spent some time hitting a bag, and only looked up when she felt someone else enter the room.

"Hey. It's Kitty, right?" Darcy asked. The younger woman offered her hand, which Darcy shook. 

"Yeah." Kitty smiled, "And you're Darcy. Haven't had a chance to officially meet everyone in the tower yet, but I definitely know about you."

Darcy wasn't sure how to take that. She hoped it was a positive thing. But a second later Kitty's cheeks pinked slightly, and she made a face.

"I'm sorry! That sounded totally creepy. I just mean, that everyone knows about you and Logan...Ah. Sorry. That's not any better is it?"

Darcy laughed out loud at Kitty's rambling. "No, it's alright, I get what you mean. The Avengers' Tower Gossip Mill is a thing to fear and behold."

"Still...It's mostly just that none of us ever expected Logan to have a soulmate. He never talked about having a soulmark."

"I don't suppose he would have." Darcy considered quietly.

"I just came down to workout." Kitty explained, "I've got to work on my hand-to-hand technique a bit. That's one of the things Logan wants me to get better at still. There are serums out there that can suppress our powers, and he wants us to be ready for any worst case scenarios."

"Well, do you need a sparring partner?" Darcy offered, "Mine is off kicking ass and taking names in D.C. with Logan and Steve, so I'm short an opponent too."

Kitty nodded, "That's right. We saw you training with the Black Widow the other day. You were pretty good." She chewed on her lip and then admitted, "To be honest she scares the shit out of me."

Darcy laughed again, "She does that to most people. But she's really pretty nice once you get to know her. You should come with us the next time we have a ladies' night, and she'll warm right up to you." She said with a smile. But then she stopped, "Wait. Are you twenty-one?"

Kitty gave an amused snort, but quickly reassured her, "Don't worry, I'm twenty-two."

"Okay, phew. I'm used to being one of the youngest people around here. It's throwing me off, having honest-to-goodness teenagers in the tower."

"I know what you mean. I'm around them all the time, and usually they seem mature and adult-like, but every once in a while they'll do something that makes me think 'Good god, you're still a child.'"

Darcy smirked at that, "Frankly that sounds like the polar opposite of Tony. He's a complete child most of the time, but once in a while he'll actually act like an adult, totally out of the blue, and it makes you question everything you know." 

Kitty laughed knowingly, and a moment later she agreed to spar with Darcy. A few minutes in, she was apologising for her rusty technique, explaining that she too often found herself relying on her abilities to duck and avoid offensive attacks. Darcy assured her it was okay, and then set about correcting several of Kitty's sloppier blocking techniques. She felt remarkably like Natasha teaching someone else to fight effectively, and she found she really liked the feeling. It was a feeling of power and confident control, but for the sake of helping someone - not too unlike a post-mission adrenaline high.

They spent an hour sparring, before Kitty begged off. But they arranged to meet up a few more times in the week to train together again.

Darcy popped into the labs on her way back upstairs, mainly to check up on Jane, and make sure she'd had breakfast. But when Tom rolled his eyes at the way Darcy barged in (though she preferred to call it "Entering With Purpose") she decided to make the rounds, and threw him a sarcastic smile for good measure.

Tony was holed up in his workshop tinkering with something but gave Darcy a series of affirmative monosylabic grunts when she asked if he'd eaten and showered in the last eight hours. Bruce was friendly when she checked in with him, and even explained a few of his newer projects to her. He was working on several biochemical serums, to speed the healing of burn patients. With the increased number of city-wide attacks ever since Loki and the Chitauri, there had been a serious increase in civilian casualties. And the local hospitals were needing better and faster solutions to some of the more serious injuries they saw come in from such attacks. 

As she was finishing making the rounds, she got an alert on her phone from Coulson to come in for a briefing. But before she left, she stopped by Jane's lab once more to set up plans to hang out with her in a few days.

It turned out that Coulson was assigning her to some very basic security detail for the next three days. Darcy was disappointed, since having such a simple assignment was easy, but didn't keep her mind occupied for long. Which gave her plenty of time to think about her situation with Logan. 

She wondered if he was thinking about her, and then imediately tried to shake the course of her thoughts. With all the over thinking she was doing, she was starting to feel as though her own subconscious wouldn't be able to pass the Bechdel test. And that thought made her anxious.

*

"Janey!" Darcy yelled through the door, as she did her best to knock on the door with her knee. "Open up!" Darcy struggled to keep her grip on the two enormous bottles of wine she wielded in either hand. "Jarvis? A little help here?"

A moment later Jarvis' voice answered, _"I have informed Dr. Foster of your arrival, and she should be at the door, shortly."_

"Thanks J-man. Besties status. For real."

_"Why thank you Agent Lewis. I am very fond of you as well._

"Awe, Jarvis, you old softie."

Just then the door cracked open to a harried looking Jane.

"Darcy! Was I expecting you?"

"Yep. We planned this three days ago, and I reminded you about it this morning."

"Oh? Huh."

"It's cool. You're you, and I'm used to it. Also, I come bearing provisions."

"Ah! Yes! Let's drink!" Jane's scatterbrained confusion could always be dispersed quickly by the promise of booze.

"Go team, go!"

Once they had settled in, huge glasses of wine in hand, with one of their favorite guilty pleasure movies ( _The Boondock Saints,_ because they both loved the twisted humor and had a strong, and thoroughly justified appreciation for vigilante justice) playing in the background, they started catching up.

Darcy recounted her tales of accompanying an ancient, wheezing senator for three obscenely boring days. And she was amused by the many faces Jane made as Darcy described having to wait outside the restroom for him as many as three times every hour.

"Ugh. It was terrible. I never want to get old like that." Darcy shuddered, "But let's discuss prettier things. Like, for instance, how's your Thunder-Boo?"

Jane sighed, "Currently off world. He's trying to smooth out some political tension in Vanaheim, and Odin's being a literal royal nightmare about him spending most of his time on Midgard these days."

"Stating the obvious here: I haven't met Thor's dad, but he sounds like a total douche-canoe. Or whatever the Asgardian version of that insult might be."

"Did I ever tell you he called me a goat?"

"What the actual fuck?"

"Okay, well 'compared' me to a goat is maybe a little more accurate, but still..."

"But still I would have totally kicked his ass for you if I'd been there." Darcy paused, and considered it a bit longer, "Well, I'd try to kick his ass. I mean, he'd probably kill me before I got very far, because, you know - magic and shit. But I'd try, because I love you."

Jane grinned, "He probably would kill you, so please don't actually do that. But I appreciate the sentiment. And I love you too." They clinked glasses and each gulped down a bit more wine.

"So speaking of soulmates, how're things with Logan?"

"Nope. Not doing it." Darcy shook her head vehemently.

"What?"

"I can't talk about him, or how I feel about him anymore." Jane raised a highly skeptical eyebrow, but Darcy pressed on, "I have talked, and thought, and considered, and even done a little strategic brooding over this particular subject. And I just can't anymore."

"So you're telling me that we are having a drunken sleepover, and you are not going to talk about your super hot soulmate _at all_ tonight?"

Darcy took a swig of wine and set her glass down, "Yep. I've concluded that I want more with him, but I think I have to just act with my gut on this one for the foreseeable future."

Jane didn't look convinced, but shrugged her shoulders, "Okay, suit yourself."

*

Logan was trying to concentrate solely on his mission, but every now and then he found himself thinking about her. He wondered if she was thinking about him, and he realized, suddenly, that he missed her.

For Darcy's part, she kept thinking of things to tell him, or share with him. Everything had essentially gone back to how things had been before she had known him. The only difference now was that it felt like something was missing.

But Darcy put her head down and muddled through. She trained more with Kitty, and checked up on the Scientists Three, but work was a nightmare. Coulson seemed to have picked the absolute most boring assignments for her, sticking her mostly with low-level security details that made the next week crawl by. She secretly wondered if she had pissed off Coulson somehow and this was his way of getting back at her.

Additionally, she later regretted the decision to act with her gut where Logan was concerned, when few days later found Darcy running towards the elevator bay on her way back from a dull day of work.

"Hey! Hey, hold the elevator!" To say she wasn't in the best of moods was a bit of an understatement. Natasha, Steve, and Logan weren't due back from D.C. for another two days, and Darcy was thoroughly dreading the pile of paperwork she had waiting for her back at her desk. Whoever was in the elevator graciously stopped the doors before they shut.

She stepped in, ready to thank whoever it was, "Tha- Oh, Logan. Hi."

Logan, stood there holding the door open and looking exhausted, but when he saw her, a weary smile touched his eyes.

"Darcy."

"You're back early." She looked him over appreciatively, taking in the duffle bag thrown over his shoulder, and his rumpled flannel shirt, the sleeves of which he had rolled up to his forearms. A commonly underappreciated body part, forearms - and boy, oh boy did his look good. She raised an eyebrow at the thought.

"Seems like it." He smirked. Good, lord that man had a sexy smirk.

Darcy couldn't be sure what prompted it - though she would probably blame it on the smirk - but suddenly she launched herself at him. He dropped the bag on his shoulder to catch her, and quickly brought his head down where their lips met in a heated kiss. He ran his tongue against the seam of her lips and she parted them, allowing him to slip his tongue inside her mouth and sweep against hers. Her hands threaded themselves into his hair, and she pulled playfully at the roots as their mouths slanted together.

His large hands wrapped around her ribcage, and she held onto his biceps so she could balance on her toes as he lifted her up slightly and pressed her back against the wall. Darcy couldn't help the soft moan that escaped from her throat, and she heard a replying growl rumble up from deep in his chest. 

She was about the go to work at undoing the buttons on his flannel shirt, when she heard the elevator chime, and the doors slid open. But they only pulled apart when they heard someone clear their throat pointedly, and someone else wolf-whistled.

Standing outside the elevator doors were Bobby, Roberto, and James who looked on the verge of giving them a slow-clap.

Logan's gaze dropped immediately to the floor, and he brought a guilty hand up to rub at the back of his neck. Darcy's cheeks tinged pink, but she smiled at the boys and straightened her shirt.

"Hey boys." She said, as casually as she could manage, and stepped past them and into the hallway, "Later Logan." She called behind her as she went, "Glad you're back."

"I...uh, yeah." Was all she heard from him, before the boys stepped into the elevator and started razzing him as the doors closed again.

Darcy gladly got to work on filing her paperwork. She was looking forward to dinner that night.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I told myself that I wasn't going to post this chapter for a few days, just to let Chapter 4 digest a little. But I'm terrible at that kind of shit. I swear, if I have donuts for breakfast and I decide to save one for later so I can have dessert with lunch or dinner or something? It's a miracle if that donut lasts ten minutes past that decision.
> 
> So because I have no will power or patience, here is Chapter 5.  
> Which gets lemon-y.  
> Very lemon-y.  
> You have been warned.  
> Also, you're welcome ;)
> 
> Enjoy!

Darcy's phone rang. It was _Run the World,_ by Beyoncé, which meant it was Natasha calling. Darcy answered.

"'Sup, beautiful and deadly?"

"Gather the troops. Ten o'clock, Caesar's, look hot." Was all the Russian said, and then the line went dead.

Darcy smiled. This was gonna be a good night.

*

Two hours later, they were at their favorite bar, dressed to party, and already on their second round of drinks.

"Okay ladies," Darcy said, raising her glass, "Here's to the continuation of the best Avenger's Family tradition ever! Here's to welcoming our newest members of badassery to our crazy, fucked up family." She nodded her head at Kitty, who grinned, and gave a cheeky wink, "And here's to getting Janey adorably sloshed, until she acts like a drunken baby sloth."

"Hey!" Jane's indignant reply came after she finished sipping on her unnaturally blue margarita.

Maria, Pepper, Natasta, and Kitty laughed, as Natasha motioned to their waiter to order another round.

Several rounds later, and long after Thor had been called to carry an incoherent Jane home, Darcy caught a taxi back to the tower. When she left Natasha and Kitty were still doing shots (though Natasha was easily winning), and Maria and Pepper were drunkenly singing along to the jukebox.

Darcy stumbled a little as she stepped off of the elevator, but she caught her balance and held onto the wall. It was then that she looked up.

Shit.

This wasn't her floor.

She shouldn'tve had that last margarita. Or the one before it. Or maybe the one before that. She couldn't remember exactly. That part of the evening was a little fuzzy.

Fuzzy.

Fuzzy, fuzzy, fuzzy.

Oh! Darcy suddenly remembered that she'd finished off the rest off Jane's fuzzy navel as well.

Shit.

She was drunker than she'd thought.

"Hey Jarvis?" She stage whispered with a shushing finger held up to her lips. Sober Darcy would be laughing at Drunk Darcy's attempts to quietly talk to the AI. But Drunk Darcy had this shit under control. She was a motherfucking government agent.

 _"Yes, Agent Lewis?"_ the AI answered at a real whisper.

"Where floor am I on?" Wait. 'Where floor?' That wasn't right. She giggled and leaned against the wall for support.

But Jarvis seemed to understand. He did, after all, have to deal primarily with Tony Stark. _"You are currently on the floor reserved for Professor Xavier's team."_

 _Ooh._ Drunk Darcy could work with that. Sober Darcy would be climbing back on the elevator to get back to the correct floor. But Drunk Darcy had _plans._

"Thanks Jarvy."

_"You are quite welcome Agent Lewis."_

Darcy started walking (stumbling) down the hall, only slightly impeded by her suddenly inconveniently high heels. She checked the nameplates on the doors until she found the right one. And then after rereading the nameplate to double check that her drunk ass was in the right place, she knocked.

And then knocked again, because the occupant was taking entirely too long to answer their door.

Rude.

And when the door finally swung open, she was leaning against the door frame with her best 'hey sailor' look.

"Hey muttonchops." She said with a smile and only the slightest of slurs.

"Darcy?" Logan asked groggily, and he scrubbed a hand over his face. He was wearing a white cotton tank top, which clung to the very pretty contours of his chest, and a pair of sweatpants that were slung delightfully low on his hips. Sober Darcy might have been somewhat reluctant to admit that particular fact, but Drunk Darcy was busy appreciating the shit out of it.

"Tha's me." She tried to push off the door frame to stand upright (and it might have taken a few tries).

"Are you drunk?"

"A little. Maybe. But I'm not as think as you drunk I am." She thought about that for a second, "Wait..." She giggled.

Logan couldn't help the grin that ghosted across his face at that sound. She was a cute drunk. And, he noticed, properly looking at her for the first time, she was wearing a blouse that was very low-cut, and a pair of leather shorts that were sinfully short. And after that kiss the other day...

Hell. 

He tried to ignore the fact that his sweatpants had suddenly gotten a bit tighter.

But that was hard (ugh) to do, now that Darcy had her pretty little hands pressed against his chest and she was leaning her weight on him and giggling.

"What are you doin' here, Darce?" He did his best to redirect his thoughts.

"Got a lil' lost. The elevator," She took one hand off his chest and pointed down the hall - wait, wrong way - she pointed the other way, "put me on the wrong floor. Which is your floor."

"I gathered that much." He said with a dry chuckle.

"But my floor is down...no, up. My floor is up," Now she pointed to the ceiling, "tha' way. But Jarvy said this was your floor. So Drunk Darcy wanted to come visit you and your sideburns."

"Well, I'm pretty sure Drunk Darcy will always be welcome." 

Darcy smiled wide, "Thanks, Wolvie." And she pushed him aside slightly to enter his apartment. She took a few steps before lurching forward. Immediately, his hands were there to circle her waist and keep her upright.

"Y'alright there, little lady?"

"Damn shoes." She muttered kicking the offending things off her feet. Now, she was significantly shorter. Her head was just barely level with his shoulder.

Once he was sure she wasn't going to tip over, he gestured towards the couch. "Go sit. I'm gettin' you some water."

Darcy made it to the couch and flopped down. She looked around the apartment and saw that it was pretty generic. He hadn't added anything to the standard Avengers Tower apartment decor. Not that Sober Darcy would be overly surprised by that. But Drunk Darcy found it worth comment.

"S'very boring in here." She informed him when Logan returned with a glass of water. He lifted one amused eyebrow, and handed her the glass, then sat beside her.

"What can I say? I'm not a big chotchky guy."

She took a sip of the water then giggled again. Drunk Darcy was a giggler. 

"You should get some pillows." 

"Pillows." Logan repeated.

"Yeah, for your couch." She sat the water down on the coffee table. "s' lumpy." She said, shifting on the couch before just picking up her legs and planting her bare feet in his lap.

"Well, you'll have to take that up with Stark, little lady." His hands came to rest on her feet. "It's technically his couch."

"I like when you call me that."

"What? 'Little lady?'"

"Yep." She popped the 'p.' "If anyone else called me that I'd be pissed. Yuh' know cuz' it sounds rude. But when you do it, s' cute."

"Hmm."

"Prolly' the soulmate thing."

"Hmm?" This time it was a question.

"Like, I wonder if we're just set up to not be annoyed by each other." 

"How you figure that?"

"I mean, tha' should annoy me - you callin' me little. But it doesn't." She explained, while slurring most of it, "An usually I think smoking is gross, but you an your cigars are totally sexy." 

He raised another eyebrow, "You think my cigars are sexy."

She nodded emphatically, "An that! That thing you do where you raise your eyebrow at me, an' do that _smirky_ thing when you think I'm being crazy. You with your sexy cigars an your sexy eyebrows."

"My eyebrows are sexy too?"

"Well, I wouldn't hit on one of your cigars, but I would hit on you and your eyebrows. An I think I am." Darcy said, "'Least, tha's what I'm trying to do." And she gave him an overly emphasized wink.

Logan laughed "I think you're doin' a pretty decent job under the circumstances." He gave her feet a gentle squeeze, and she moaned.

"What?" He asked.

"Tha' feels good." She said closing her eyes, "Evil shoes. Why do I wear evil shoes?" She moaned again, when he started massaging her feet for real. 

He was happy to oblige. But it was hard to keep his thoughts from straying when she made those noises. He pictured her making very similar sounds with his hands in a very different place. Shit. His cock was a very big fan of that particular image. He tried to clear it from his head, but it was difficult to do with the little mewling noises she made as he kneeded the tender muscles in her arches. What he wouldn't give to simply rip those pretty shorts off and- nope. Definitely not. She was drunk, and in no condition to consent to such activities.

After a minute or two, Logan realized that Darcy had stopped making those sinful sounds. He looked over and found her sound asleep. He sighed. Logan was having trouble denying it anymore. Darcy was getting more and more difficult to resist, and he wasn't sure he wanted to resist her in any case.

Logan carefully lifted her feet off of his lap, and stood from the sofa. He retrieved the comforter from his bed and tucked it over her sleeping form. He would be fine with just the sheet, since he tended to run warm anyways. He ignored the part of his mind that was telling him to just pick her up and carry her to bed. He also left two aspirin for her beside the mostly full water glass that still stood well within reach on the coffee table.

Logan gazed at Darcy for a moment. She really was something. The universe had clearly seen fit to draw them together for some reason, and if he was entirely honest, the universe was starting to make a lot of damn sense.

But he was definitely going to need a cold shower before going back to bed.

*

Darcy awoke with a terrible taste in her mouth and a crick in her neck. And everything in the room was backwards.

She sat up suddenly.

Oh, bad idea. Really, really awful idea. Her head throbbed painfully, and she momentarily contemplated throwing up.

After she was sure she wasn't going to toss her cookies, she looked around again. Why was everything backwar- Oh. Right. Logan's place.

Sober Darcy really hated Drunk Darcy sometimes.

"You're up." Darcy turned to face the owner of the very deep voice, and sure enough it was Logan.

He was dressed in dark jeans and a plain grey t-shirt. And his hair was wet from the shower. 

Shit, he was attractive.

"Hey, yeah. I'm up." She answered him.

"You want some breakfast?"

"You cook?"

He chuckled, "If you count bacon and eggs, and nothin' else? Then yeah, I cook."

"Well shit."

"That a yes?"

"Yes. That's a yes."

He offered her half a smile, then leaned over to pull a pan out from one of the cabinets.

She turned back around and took stock of herself. Hair? Probably a hot mess. Face? Probably a hot mess that had slept in her makeup. Clothes? Yesterday's. Ew.

It was then that Darcy noticed the aspirin and the glass of water sitting in front of her on the coffee table. She quickly took the pills and downed nearly all of the water. Then she stood, and quickly made a noise in protest.

"You alright, little lady?" Logan asked from the kitchen.

"Yeah," Darcy replied, one hand over her stomach, and the other holding her head as they both spun, "I just really hate Drunk Darcy." She made her way over to the kitchen.

He laughed, deep and rumbly from his chest. _Ooh,_ her lady bits liked that sound. 

"I dunno. I think she's pretty cute." Said Logan with a smirk. Darcy rolled her eyes.

"Hey, do you mind if I use your shower?"

"Go right ahead, little lady." He said, cracking some eggs into a bowl, "Towels are under the sink."

"Thanks."

She wandered out of the kitchen and into his bedroom. She had been curious as to how this room would look, but it wasn't that far off from what she had expected. The wide bed - just like hers, thank you Tony - was absent a comforter, which was when she remembered the dark grey comforter that she had woken up beneath on the couch. 

Darcy inhaled deeply. It just smelled so much like him in this room, she recognized with a smile. His warm, spicy musk, that was infused with the scent of leather and the tobacco from his cigars. She wasn't sure when it had happened, but she had come to love that scent.

Darcy made her way into the bathroom, which - again - looked just like hers but backwards, and devoid of the many colourful bottles of makeup and lotions that she liked so much. But she knew she could do without for now.

She found a clean towel underneath the sink, just like he said. Darcy set the towel on the counter and crossed the bathroom to get the water running. After adjusting the taps the way she liked them - another pro to having nearly identical bathrooms - Darcy stripped out of last night's outfit and folded her clothes, setting them on the counter beside the towel.

She stepped into the spray and let the warm water ease away the tension in her neck and shoulders. The hangover was entirely her fault. She never remembered to rehydrate properly. Not that Logan hadn't left her with plenty of water and painkillers. 

Actually, as she thought about it she realized how well he had taken care of her the night before. He had made sure she had water and asprin, tucked her in with a pillow and his own comforter, and she even vaguely recalled a foot rub at one point - which, if her drunk memory served, had been fantastic.

So the big scary mutant had a soft side after all. She smiled as she washed her hair. His shampoo was woefully generic, but it would do for now. Darcy just hoped to scrub away the grime of her drunken late-night shenanigans. And to be honest, she didn't mind leaving Logan with the mental picture of her using his shower. She certainly was working up a library of mental images of him in this same place and state.

Darcy knew Logan was attracted to her. And she _definitely_ knew she was attracted to him. Part of her desperately wanted to jump him every time he lit up one of those otherwise disgusting cigars. 

Wait.

She stopped rinsing her hair.

Had she...said something to him about his cigars? For some unsettling reason, that seemed to ring Darcy's drunk memory bell.

Shit. She'd deal with that later.

Darcy finished rinsing off and jumped out of the shower. She quickly dried off, then considered her options.

Either wear yesterday's clothes, or steal from Logan.

Definitely steal from Logan.

Darcy wrapped herself in the towel and stepped back into his bedroom. She could already smell the delicious scent of bacon wafting in from the kitchen.

Darcy crossed the room to his closet. Unsurprisingly, it was significantly less full than her own. It didn't take her long to find a pair of clean boxers which she slipped on and she grabbed a red plaid flannel button down to wear over it for now. _He'll be lucky if he gets this back._ She thought as she buttoned the flannel. It _was_ incredibly comfy. Suddenly his wardrobe choices made a hell of a lot of sense.

Darcy hung the towel back up in the bathroom, and left her clothes on the counter. She would get them before she left. Then she made her way out to the kitchen for some breakfast.

"Well well well." She teased, seeing him weild a spatula, "What's cookin' good lookin'?"

He turned around at her voice. And she could swear the corners of his mouth turned up at the sight of her in his shirt.

"Bacon's nearly done." He said, turning back around to scoop some eggs onto a plate. "You gonna steal a man's clothes, huh?"

"Well it was either this or wear my dirty clothes from yesterday. And I just hate getting so dirty again right after a shower." 

"Oh really?" Logan asked, brows hiked. He pulled a couple pieces of bacon out of the pan and put them on her plate before setting it in front of her.

She knew exactly what she was doing when she looked him in the eye and responded with a wink, "Really."

He lingered, leaning both hands - arms wide - on the countertop across from her, his eyebrows inclined. "It's a good look on you."

"You think?"

"I think."

"Bacon's burning."

"Hmm. Pan must've gotten too hot."

"You gonna get that?" She asked. When he said nothing in response, she stood to turn off the burner herself. He still said nothing but she brushed against him on her way to the stove. And when she turned back around he was right in front of her.

"Darcy." His voice was low, rumbling her name deeply, and it went straight to her core.

"Yeah?" Her reply was barely a whisper.

"I'm gonna kiss you now." It was almost a question. His hands came up to grip her waist, but he was seeking permission.

This time her voice was a little more confident. "Sounds like a good plan."

"Ya' think?"

"I thi-" She didn't get to finish her thought because his lips had found hers and her mouth was suddenly otherwise occupied.

Their lips fit together, hot and heavy. Her's parting easily, allowing his tongue entrance. His hands gripped her waist with a purpose, fingers digging into her soft flesh there, and her hands ended up around his neck. His tongue pulled back to trace her bottom lip before he nipped at it less-than-gently with his teeth. She let out a breathy moan, which he responded to with a feral growl that ripped from deep in his chest. He turned them both around and lifted her up to sit on top of the island counter, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, locking them at the ankles. 

Logan continued to assault her mouth, and brought one hand up to cup her face, as her hands moved from his neck to fist tightly into his hair as she had done the other day in the elevator. That growl returned, and she felt his body tremble with the resonance of it. Darcy felt herself grow wet from the sound, and she licked into his mouth with an enthusiastic fervor. 

After a moment Darcy drew her hands down his chest, letting them glide over each hard ridge of muscle beneath his t-shirt. And suddenly she felt the need to feel those muscles without the barrier of cotton in the way. She reached the hem of his shirt with her fingertips, and started working it up his torso. Logan got the hint and broke their kiss long enough to help her pull it the rest of the way over his head.

The shirt was thrown to the floor somewhere, and their lips mashed together again. She pressed her hands into his bare skin, loving the smoothness of his stomach that gave way to the soft dark hair that covered his chest. At some point his fingers found the buttons on her shirt and he began working them loose. The flannel fell open and one of Logan's hands began kneading a breast, his fingers pinching and rolling her nipple, while the other hand pressed into her lower back. She moaned wantonly into his mouth, and her own hands came to his crotch. They greedily stroked the hardness there, and his hips bucked of their own accord.

"Darce-" Logan gasped out, pulling away from her lips, and panting hard.

"Bed." Darcy replied insistently.

"Yes ma'am." His hand left her breast and instead both hands tucked themselves beneath her hips, and lifted her off the counter. Darcy's legs were still locked around his waist and so it was easy for him to carry her into his bedroom while she attacked his neck with her mouth, sucking and laving the heated skin there with her tongue. She wasn't concerned about leaving any marks since she knew they would disappear within minutes.

Logan laid her back on the mattress then stood upright, forcing her to let go of her grip on his body. He gripped the waistband on the boxers she wore and gently tugged them down her legs, before they too were discarded carelessly on the floor. Darcy propped herself up to shimmy back further onto the mattress so he could join her on the bed. And when she reached the headboard she made grabby hands at him, prompting Logan to climb up and stalk towards her on his knees. There was something animalistic in his stance that made her insides burn with desire, and his pupils were blown so wide that his light brown eyes nearly looked black. 

When he reached her, he knelt between her splayed legs and inclined his head to hers to capture her lips in another bruising kiss. One of his hands dipped between her legs to cup her mound. He slid his fingers lower to gather the wetness - of which there was plenty - at her entrance and to draw some of it upwards to circle slickly over her clit. Darcy gasped and pulled her mouth from his as she threw her head back. 

He used that moment to lean forward and continue sucking kisses against her bared throat. He circled her entrance once more with his fingertips before pressing one thick digit into her and curling it upwards. Below him Darcy was keening blatantly and she welcomed the penetration, but it wasn't enough. She thrust her hips downward - humping his hand - to try to draw him deeper. Logan responded by pulling his finger back out (to her almost incoherent protestation), only to add a second finger and press them both in to the knuckle. 

He began working his fingers in a gentle rhythm, in and out of her wet heat. And as he fingered her, she writhed beneath him. Her cries grew louder until she came undone and her hips bucked off the mattress. Darcy placed a hand over his to still his movements while she caught her breath, and once she had, she reached lower to unbutton his jeans and work down the zipper. She reached inside and found him not only commando, but hard and ready. Darcy wrapped her hand around his cock as best she could from that angle. She grinned salaciously up at him. Logan withdrew his fingers from her to push his jeans down past his hips, and as he did, Darcy pushed up on his shoulders to flip them over so she could straddle him.

He looked a little surprised at first at the change in position, but it disappeared when she reached between her legs, took hold of him firmly and stroked his shaft. He growled again.

God, she could get used to hearing that sound in bed. And it only seemed to make her even wetter. But Darcy was done teasing. She stroked him once more before lining him up with her and sitting slowly. Taking him in inch by delicious inch and mewling softly as his cock stretched her sensitive walls.

She didn't stop until their pelvises were flush against each other.

"Good god, little lady." He groaned.

Darcy couldn't help herself as she bit her lip and smirked down at him. She knew this position gave her the power, and she loved the feeling of being in control of all his strength and muscle. Logan could swear his cock even grew more inside Darcy, with the image of her above him - his unbuttoned flannel shirt still hanging from her shoulders - fueling his desire.

She circled her hips and watched as he clenched his teeth and gave a animalistic snarl. Logan's fingers dug into her hip bones, hard enough that they would likely leave bruises, but Darcy relished the bite on her skin. She lifted up and sank back down, rolling her hips and setting a careful rhythm until she began to feel the waves of pleasure building inside her.

Darcy leaned forward then, changing the angle and pressing her breasts into Logan's chest. He lifted his knees and planted his feet into the mattress, to thrust deeper each time. His fingers traced patterns onto the soft fabric covering her back, as she pressed a path of kisses up his neck to just below his ear.

"Logan," She cried as he thrust up into her, and she felt her release building quickly.

Without warning Logan grabbed Darcy's hips and flipped them so that he hovered above her. He released her hips and gathered her hands into one of his, which he held above her head. With the other hand he reached down between them and stroked at her clit. Darcy squirmed as the pleasure increased.

He drove steadily into her, and before long she was reaching her peak, crying out his name as her orgasm hit full force. He continued to fuck her straight through, riding out her pleasure. And after just a few more thrusts, his rhythm became sporadic as he too found his release with a deep groan, filling her full of his hot seed.

Logan collapsed on top of her, but shifted his weight a bit to the side, so as not to crush her while they both caught their breath. After a minute, he slipped out and rolled into his back, drawing Darcy into his side. She could feel his come dripping out of her and onto her thighs with the absence of his cock to keep it in.

"You alright, little lady?" He asked, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"Shit. I'm great. That was- God, I think my hangover's gone." Darcy said with a bit of a laugh. "You think your come has healing powers too?" She asked jokingly.

His body stiffened beside her, and he groaned.

"What?" She asked, feeling out of the loop.

"Jesus, little lady. You make me forget my damn self. We didn't use any protection." He rubbed his hand over his face, as he seemed to do when he was stressed.

"We're good." She reassured him, "I mean, I'm clean and I've got an implant. And I'm assuming the whole 'healing mutation' thing means you can't have anything anyways."

"Yeah, somethin' like that." He confirmed, "You said you've got an implant?"

"Yep." She pushed the sleeve of the shirt up and guided his hand to feel a bump under the skin of her forearm. "SHIELD agent specialty. I mean, I'm not completely opposed to the idea of kids, but I just think now is like, _so_ not the time."

He huffed his agreement and stroked gently up and down her arm with his fingertips. "So you don't mind that I..."

"What? Came inside me?" He gave a sharp nod, "To be honest, I really liked it. I've never let anyone do that before."

He _hmm'd_ his agreement to that fact. It made him feel proud in a strange way to know that he was the only one to have ever done such an intimate thing with her. Almost as if by doing so he had some kind of protective claim to her beyond the words that marked their skin. Not that Logan would ever dare tell her that. He knew she would take him down faster than you could say "Fuck you Phyllis Schlafly." But he had to admit, he loved that about her.

"Um... Hey, Logan?" Her question broke into his thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"Did I, um, maybe mention something to you last night about your cigars...?"

"What? You mean how you think they're sexy?"

Darcy groaned. She hated Drunk Darcy.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovely readers:)
> 
> I'm having so much fun writing this story that I can't help posting three chapters in less than a week! Such a terrible, terrible problem to have, amirite?
> 
> So here is Chapter 6, with a dose of action and a sprinkling of fluff.

The next few weeks passed in relative normalcy. Normalcy for Avengers Tower of course meaning there were only two attacks on the city (relatively minor threats) and Tony only blew up one incredibly expensive thing in his workshop. And there was the added factor of Darcy spending half her nights at Logan's place in relative states of undress.

She was sure it came back to the soulmate thing, but they just fit together like puzzle pieces. Darcy couldn't find any other reasonable explanation for why they worked together so well. She'd had some good lovers in the past, but never anyone who made her feel the way Logan did (And the things he did with his tongue!). In the past, she had not often climaxed from penetration alone, but with Logan it wasn't difficult to do. And she'd finally discovered the wonder of multiple orgasms. It felt like she had unlocked the ultimate achievement. Talk about a level up.

She enjoyed sucking him off too. Something she hadn't always enjoyed when previous partners had shoved her head down, or thrust too hard into her throat. But Logan was different there too, never forcing her to do anything she didn't want to do, and only rough when they both wanted or needed it. The added benefit was that blowing him put her nearly eye-level with the words tattooed across the skin of his thigh. Which felt empowering, like she was emphasizing her claim to him with every swirl and lick of her tongue.

It was probably the same reason why Logan especially liked taking her from behind. It helped that it had always been one of her favorite angles, with her face and shoulders pressed into the mattress and her hips lifted to where he could hit just the right spot with every thrust. He would drag his fingers down the center of her back while he rocked into her, tracing the scrawl of his words along her spine. An action that never failed to give her chills.

And it wasn't all just physical connection either. He was so easy to talk to and surprisingly sweet. If she was ranting about her mother driving her crazy, or Coulson driving her crazy, or Jane driving her crazy, he just listened. Often stroking her back while she was curled into his side on the couch. She noticed that he didn't often get upset, but he would bristle slightly when she was feeling anxious about something.

Darcy also noticed that her nightmares didn't come on quite as often when she was with Logan. And when they did, he would pull her close and keep a reassuring arm wrapped around her until she fell back to sleep. He knew, all too well, the power of nightmares.

But as much as part of her wanted nothing more than to spend all day, every day in bed with Logan, they both had other responsibilities that needed attention. Namely, world saving.

The day after Logan had left with Bobby, Steve, and Natasha on some three day mission somewhere in eastern Europe, Coulson called her down to his office for a briefing. 

"Hey Son of Coul. What's shakin'?" Said Darcy, breezing into his office and plopping down in the chair across from him.

"Agent Lewis," Coulson said with a nod, "I've got a mission for you."

"I figured as much," Darcy smiled as she leaned back and propped her feet up on his desk. Coulson didn't look amused, but let it go.

"Arms dealer named Manuel Soto. He's been smuggling weapons into the states from Cuba, and his cartel is growing. Enough that they just set up shop in a huge warehouse outside Miami." Coulson handed Darcy a file, which she opened and began perusing.

"Are you kidding me? Dude's got an eyepatch, a giant scar across his face, AND a handlebar mustache. He's not even trying to blend in." Darcy snarked, "Can you picture this guy going to the grocery store to pick up - I don't know - like, canned peaches, and toilet paper, and other normal shit?" The corner of Coulson's lips quirked up, almost imperceptibly, but it was gone quickly.

"Agent Lewis, focus please." Coulson said, serious again.

"I am a camera." Replied Darcy with mock seriousness, closing the file and pulling her feet off the desk.

"You and Agent Barton are going to lead a team in to shut Soto's operation down." 

"Okay," Darcy nodded. "But I don't want Agent Sims on my team. I know he's generally good, and we've worked together before, but he doesn't like to listen to me, so that makes him pretty useless." In fact, Agent Sims was also a womanizing bastard, who couldn't make it through a single conversation with Darcy without staring at her boobs, no matter how well they were covered. But details, details.

Coulson placed his elbows on the desk and laced his fingers together, "Noted."

"When do we leave?"

"Wheels go up at eighteen hundred hours."

Darcy rolled her eyes. She would never get used to military time, "So... six?"

"Yes, Lewis. At six." Coulson sighed again.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you Son of Coul." Darcy hopped up out of her chair, taking the file with her.

*

24 hours later found Darcy hiding behind a wall of wooden crates full of guns, holding her hand to the bleeding gunshot wound above her hip. There was a guy shooting an AK-47 from a stack of crates about twenty feet high across the room, who had her stuck. Past him, was a set of metal stairs that led to an upper level, where Soto kept his offices, and was currently hiding out.

"Lewis, you okay?" She heard Clint through the comm unit in her ear.

"Yeah, I'm fuckin' peachy." Darcy panted heavily, "Look, Barton, can you do me a favor and take out that asshole with the AK-47? He's got me pinned down over here." Two of the other agents from Darcy's team rounded the corner then. One helping the other to walk who was limping, with blood seeping from a wound above his knee. Darcy motioned for both of them to get down as another barrage of gunfire rang out on the other side of the crates.

"Can do. Give me a sec." Barton replied.

Not quite a full minute later the gunfire stopped. Darcy chanced a peek over the top of the crates. The guy who had been shooting at them was slumped over his gun, an arrow sticking out of his neck.

"Thanks Barton, you're a doll." Darcy said into her comm.

"Any time, babe."

Darcy glanced down at her wound, and used her hands to rip the fabric a little around it. She prodded at the wound, and sucked in air. 

She had been shot from the front, and it was about an inch above her hip bone. It felt deep, but - she thanked her curvy genetics - it was probably just a flesh wound.

Darcy did her best to compartmentalize her pain, and stood up. She pressed the release on her Glock and checked the magazine, then slid it back into place with a solid click, "Alright, let's go fuck his shit up." 

Then she climbed over the low wall of crates and jogged her way to the stairs.

*

Darcy's wound had ended up needing surgery, primarily to remove the bullet. That part she was okay with. What she wasn't okay with was that they insisted on keeping her for 48 hours for observation. And they wouldn't let her have any coffee.

Coulson had already been by for her debriefing, and to bring her a lovely flower arrangement. Thor and Jane had visited several times, bringing Pop-tarts and Darcy's favorite sweatpants (for which she was unendingly grateful. Hospital gowns left a lot to be desired in the way of both comfort, and modesty). Most of the X-Men had dropped by to visit, and Kitty had stayed to paint her toenails earlier.

But Bruce and Tony had been keeping her company since then. Bruce was sitting in the arm chair in the corner of her room, reading quietly, while Tony was currently losing against her in a game of Scrabble, because he insisted on only making dirty words out of his letters.

"Tony, you can't get points for that." Darcy exhaled.

"I can too. It's a real word!" Tony argued, "It means-"

"It has to be in English!" She cut him off.

"Well that's just no fun at all!"

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

The door opened to Bobby, who was holding a bouquet of colorful daisies. Behind him was Steve who held a fuzzy brown teddy bear that had a miniature Captain America shield attached to its arm.

"Hey Darcy," Said Bobby, leaning down to give her a hug, flowers still in hand. "How are you doing?"

She hugged him back as best she could without knocking over the Scrabble board on her lap, or pulling on her stitches. "Eh, I'm fine. They just won't let me out until tomorrow."

Bobby rolled his eyes at her stubbornness and stepped back. Steve took his place hugging Darcy and handing her the bear.

"I thought you could use a cuddly friend." He said, shooting her a wink.

"Thanks Steve, I love him." Said Darcy, giving the bear a squeeze. "Maybe I should name him Captain Cuddles."

"I thought that was your man candy's nickname." Tony smirked.

Bobby laughed at that, "Logan's not exactly cuddly."

"I resent that," A gruff voice said from the doorway. Logan was leaning up against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest. "I'm plenty cuddly."

Darcy smiled, "Hey you."

"Hey yourself," Logan said, stepping into the room. "That's not English," he said, glancing at the Scrabble board that still sat on Darcy's lap.

"I know," Tony said with a lascivious grin, "But wanna know what it means?"

"I know what it means. And that's disgusting." Logan replied, coming to Darcy's side. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "How ya' feelin', little lady?" 

"Ugh," She groaned, "I'm fine. Really. I just wish they'd let me have some damn coffee. I'm jonesing."

Logan chuckled and sat in the chair beside her bed.

They spend the next couple hours just keeping company. Bruce and Bobby started up a game of Scrabble after Tony gave up under protest of being restricted to English words.

Even Nat dropped by, bringing Darcy a large coffee fixed just the way she liked it. Darcy wasn't terribly surprised that Nat had gotten it past the nurses, but she was incredibly grateful. Nat stayed long enough to French braid Darcy's hair, but then she very efficiently corralled everyone else out of the room, so that Darcy and Logan could be alone.

"You know," Logan started after the door had shut, "When I go away for a few days, you're not supposed to go and get yourself shot."

Darcy's brows furrowed. "It's not like it was intentional. Besides you should have seen this guy's operation. Biggest gun cartel Miami's ever seen. And the guy himself looked like Captain Hook and Scarface had a baby."

Logan leaned forward until his head rested on her shoulder. "Can we be serious for a second?"

"I am being serious. Logan, I may not have a handy dandy healing mutation, but regardless, I am still going to be in real danger on a regular basis for my job." Darcy explained, "And I can take care of myself. I got shot and I still took out the guy and half his goons. Don't you go getting all domineering on me."

Logan sighed, "I just don't like seeing you get busted up."

"Logan, it's my job. The goal, yes, is to try not to get hurt. But it's going to happen occasionally."

"I understand that, but I'm never going to like it."

"Well, luckily, you don't have to like it." Darcy teased. "But I will promise I'll do my best to always be as safe as possible."

"I 'spose that's all I can ask." 

"You could ask for a kiss."

Logan rolled his eyes at her segue, but he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, all the same.

The nurses tried to kick him out a while later, on the grounds that visiting hours were over. But he shot them a deadly glare, and the issue was dropped. Ultimately, Logan ended up in the tiny hospital bed with Darcy, holding her while she slept.

He lay there thinking about what she had said. It was unfair really. The fact that she essentially never needed to worry about him when he was on a mission, because he was practically indestructible. But her job was just as dangerous and unpredictable, and she was only human. She was going to grow older and die someday, and he had a feeling he would never be prepared enough for that day. That was at least, if she got the chance to grow older. Given those options he would much rather her fade away, old and frail, but looking back on decades of happiness with him, than to have it all end suddenly now.

This little lady had blown into his life like a hurricane, but it was like she had brought out the sunshine after the storm. Everything was a little brighter with her. He couldn't remember a time in his life when he had ever smiled so much (not that it was a lot anyways, but still).

Logan squeezed her tighter, just thanking the universe for her relatively safe return. In turn, Darcy snuggled even more into his side.

He wasn't quite sure how he had gotten to a point of wanting this - this feeling of her tucked into his side, safe and warm - so much. But, hell if he didn't want anything but this now that he had it. 

*

Her nightmares had begun to abate slightly, but Darcy dreamt that night.

She dreamt she was in a warehouse just like the one in Miami. All around her were wooden crates stacked as far as she could see. Darcy yelled, asking if anyone else was there, but there was no answer.

Suddenly she felt a pain in her chest and looked down. Her chest and stomach were torn open and bleeding. There was so much blood, she couldn't even see what kind of wound it was. A gunshot? Stab wound? She couldn't be sure.

But Darcy felt as her breathing became labored, her lungs filled with blood, and she began to cough. Drops of red sprayed from her mouth, and she tasted the coppery tang of blood on her tongue.

The room spun violently and she collapsed. Darcy knew she had to find help. She tried to scream again, but she couldn't suck in enough air to make her voice work.

Then just as she was sure she was going to pass out, she saw a shadow fall across her field of vision. Darcy looked up and saw Logan standing there in his jumpsuit, looking just the way he had the day they met.

"Well hey, little lady." He said, lifting the corner of his mouth in a half smile. He walked towards her and knelt by her side. She tried to say his name, but she only coughed again, spraying his boots with blood.

He reached out and stroked her face with the back of his knuckles - just where his claws would extend.

And then magically, Darcy could breathe again. She sucked in air greedily for a moment, then looked down. Her chest and belly were whole again. There was no sign of the gore that had been there only moments before. The spatter of blood was even gone from the floor and from Logan's boots.

Logan held a hand out to her and when she took it he helped her to stand. He pulled her close, until she was pressed up against the length of him, and leaned his head down slowly. Darcy in turn, rose up to her tiptoes. Their lips were only a breath apart.

Darcy woke abruptly. 

For a moment she wondered where she was, but then she heard the soft beeping of a heart monitor and a low snoring in her ear. She turned her head and was face to face with a sleeping Logan.

She studied the planes of his face in the dim, pre-sunrise light from the window. The scruff on his chin and cheeks was even more pronounced with stubble, and she laid her forehead against his chin. Darcy spent a contented spell just breathing in his leathery, tobaccoey musk.

A thought crossed her mind then: She had never been in love before, though she wondered if this was what it felt like. But it was just a thought.

Darcy slowly drifted back to sleep thinking about cigars, and the feel of soft, dark sideburns, and sweet, lingering kisses.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have some really exciting things planned out for this story, and I'm having so much fun with it!
> 
> A big thank you to everyone reading this story, and to everyone continuing to comment and give kudos! They never fail to make me smile:)
> 
> So without further ado...

Darcy was released from the medical wing with some heavy duty painkillers the following afternoon, and she swore up and down that she heard the nursing staff breathe a collective sigh of relief (though Darcy figured they wouldn't have had such a rough time of her stay if they had just let her drink some damn coffee). She spent the next two days recovering, which mostly entailed hanging out on the common floor, eating ice cream and hopelessly attempting to beat Bobby at Mario Kart.

On her fourth day out of the medical wing, there was an attack on the city. Some ridiculous, eye-rolling plot by Doctor Doom, involving giant robotic apes. Both the Avengers and the X-Men teams assembled to fight them off, and Darcy, Jane, and Pepper watched the news coverage on T.V. Near the end of the attack they had started taking shots of Tony's very expensive whiskey every time the news anchors made terrible primate-related puns ( _"Well Judy, it looks like Captain America is really going_ ape _on that bot there!"_  
_"I think you're right Todd. This attack has our favorite heros going_ bananas _!"_ ).

When the teams finally stumbled back in, the three ladies were perfectly drunk, thankyouverymuch.

Logan caught Darcy as she tried to run toward him and nearly wiped out. ("You're very dirty. And sweaty. You're swirty."  
"Darce, how much whiskey did you drink?"  
"Jus' a liddle."  
"Aren't you still on vicodin?"  
"Yeeeup."  
"Shit.")

On Darcy's fifth day out of the medical wing she had a hangover the size of North America and she swore she would never drink again.

A week after Darcy left the medical wing, she started back to some light training. That was also the day that Professor Xavier returned to visit for a few days and meet with Director Fury, and both teams.

Nine days after Darcy left the medical wing, she stopped by Jane's apartment, only to find out that the only thing the tiny scientist had eaten in three days was blueberry Pop-tarts. She immediately stormed down to the Jane's lab to find Tom.

"Dude! Tommy-boy!"

"Uh...Hey Darcy. What's up?" He looked up from a pile of paperwork. She could just tell, even from a distance, that he was filling out half of it incorrectly.

"Nothing besides the fact that Jane hasn't eaten anything besides blueberry Pop-tarts for literally three days." She glared at him.

"Um..." He started. As much as he disliked her, Darcy knew she still intimidated Tom, and she took a little bit of pleasure in the slight waver of his voice, "I thought Pop-tarts were okay? Sometimes that's all she'll eat."

"Yes, but she needs protein at some point." She berated him, "It's your job to hand her endless Pop-tarts when she's on a science bender for mere calories. But dude, when she comes up for air she needs _real_ food."

Tom ducked his head and brought a hand up to rub the back of his neck, "Yeah, sorry."

"She's napping now, and I'm gonna force feed her a hot pocket when she wakes up, but just don't make me come down here again about this. Fix it in the future, okay?"

"I will, I swear."

"Good, because if I make you nervous, just remember that Jane is regularly banging the actual God of Thunder."

Tom's faced paled slightly.

Darcy laughed, "It's cool, Keith Moon. Just remember, protein. At least once every forty-eight hours." She said pointing at him and giving him a wink.

Tom nodded, as Darcy began backing out of the lab.

But before she could get very far, an alarm began blaring through the lab.

"Motherfucker!" Darcy cried, instinctively clapping her hands over her ears, and dropping to the floor.

"What's that!? What's happening!?" Tom shouted, as he mimicked Darcy in blocking out the sudden noise.

"I don't know." She admitted, crawling over to Tom's (Darcy's former) desk, and reaching beneath it. "Jarvis? What's going on?"

_"I'm afraid that someone is attempting to breach my internal servers."_

"Shit!" Darcy yelled over the blaring alarm as she pulled a very sharp and deadly looking knife from under the bottom drawer of the desk.

"Uh, how long has that been there?" Tom asked seriously, dropping his hands and sitting up on his knees.

"Since I started training with Nat." She deadpanned, checking the sharpness of the tip with the edge of her finger. "Good. Right. Jarvis, update?" She turned her head up.

 _"Mr. Stark is trying to-to-to-to run counter measures, but th-th-they are very well e-e-e-equipped."_ The AI stuttered. His flawless code was being broken down and broken into.

Darcy couldn't believe it. Jarvis was being hacked, and she had no way of getting a real sit-rep. No way of knowing what was going on.

The alarm stopped suddenly, and she heard yelling from the hallway.

"Get down and shut up!" She whispered harshly to Tom, who immediately followed her orders. She ducked behind Tom's desk, the handle of the knife clutched tightly in her hand.

What she wouldn't give to have her gun, or even her taser right about now.

She heard the door to the lab click open. She motioned for Tom to stay down and hidden behind the filing cabinet he had scrambled to. She prayed to the universe that the person (she was fairly certain that she only heard one set of footsteps) who had just come in was one of theirs - perhaps checking on them; giving them the all-clear.

Darcy leaned forward a fraction to peer around the desk.

Goddamnit.

Definitely not friendly. No shield agent she knew of dressed in all black, complete with a beret that had _that_ kind of insignia on their uniform. It was definitely the red-tentacled sea monster of Hydra, and Darcy's brain - being Darcy's brain - immediately started trying to develop jokes about pissing off Ursula, and Poor Unfortunate Souls every time she saw it.

For a tense few minutes the goon shuffled through the stacks of papers that covered the desks and lab tables. Darcy closed her eyes and willed him to leave without noticing them. Goonie glanced up and looked around the lab before his eyes settled on Jane's personal laptop, that still sat open on her desk. He crossed the room and put a hand up to his ear, pressing two fingers to a comm device there.

"Commander, I think I've found Foster's computer. Preparing to retrieve the files now."

"Like hell you are!" Tom shouted standing abruptly from his hiding place.

 _Aw shitballs._ Darcy groaned internally, _Stupid Tommy. Stupid, stupid, stupid Tommy._

"Christ!" The goon shouted as he turned quickly, dropping the flash drive he had been preparing to insert into Jane's computer. He quickly drew his side arm with his right hand and trained it on Tom, while his left hand returned to the comm. "Commander! There's a civilian in here! Commander?"

 _"Miss Lewis,"_ She nearly yelped when she suddenly recognized Professor Xavier's voice in her head, _"Are you alright? Mr. Stark is working on getting Jarvis back online, and we have taken down nearly all of the intruders."_

 _Yes!_ She thought back pointedly, _I'm alright for now, but the dumbass lab assistant just made an idiot move! There's one of them in here, and Tom just gave up his location._

Tom had frozen at the sight of the gun, and he looked about ready to piss himself.

_"Keep calm Miss Lewis, we will get you out of there."_

_Thanks prof. And..._ She hesitated for a moment, _Maybe don't tell Logan where I am for now. Keep him focused, ya' know?_

 _"Yes,"_ He considered her suggestion, _"Perhaps you're right."_

Darcy returned her thoughts to the situation at hand. Tommy had his hands up and was pleading with the goon not to steal Jane's files.

 _Well at least not all of his instincts are bad._ Darcy thought. At least he understood the importance of protecting Jane's work.

"Look," Goonie was saying, "I'm under orders. Stay back or I'll shoot."

Darcy sighed, "Not so fast, dude." She said, staying behind the desk, in case he was a little trigger-happy. She flinched when she heard the gunshot and the sound of a bullet lodging itself into the desk.

Yep. Trigger-happy as fuck.

"Who's there? Come out, now!" Goonie asked in her direction.

Darcy tucked the knife into the back of her waistband and then stood carefully. She kept her arms raised and in full sight.

"Dude, we're just a couple of lab assistants," She twisted the truth just slightly. She figured the guy with the gun wouldn't feel comfortable knowing she was trained to take him down in more ways than he could count. "Don't shoot, man. We can talk about this right? We're all just trying to keep our bosses happy."

"Shut up!" Goonie shouted, then put his hand back up to his comm. "Commander! Come in, Commander Schmidt!"

Darcy figured it probably wouldn't be prudent for him to know that his commander was hopefully lying on the floor somewhere in the building, with six evenly spaced slashes through his chest. Just like she hoped that a man with six evenly spaced blades protruding from his hands didn't find out that she was currently stuck in a lab with a dumbass lab monkey, a trigger-happy bad guy, and only a knife with which to protect herself.

Granted she knew about eleven creative ways to kill a person with a knife, but Gun beat out Knife when it came to fighting from a distance. She was still working on her accuracy at knife-throwing. Clint had begun teaching her a while back, and she could practically hear his voice now, berating her for not practicing regularly. Darcy didn't think she could make a decent shot from here, and now was NOT the time to be testing those murky waters.

"I have to get- I am under orders to bring back these files." Goonie faltered for a moment - enough to let Darcy see that he maybe wasn't a stone cold villain through and through. He seemed nervous and she could work with that.

"I can't let you do that!" Tom said, standing his ground.

"Tommy...." She warned him. This was not the time to be playing the hero.

"Don't move!" Goonie shouted, training his gun back on Tom.

"I have to stop him!" Tom insisted, looking at Darcy.

"Stay where I can see you!" Goonie tried again, but there was just enough of a waver in his voice to let Darcy know he didn't really want to hurt them. Civvie lab assistants weren't what he had signed up for.

"Tommy don't!" Darcy warned again. She tried to comunicate the rest of her thoughts with her eyes. Urging him to shut up and let her handle this.

But Tom didn't see. He was already lunging toward the flash drive on the floor.

A shot rang out in the lab.

"TOMMY! Shit!" Tom collapsed face down, and didn't move. Darcy instinctively pulled the knife out from her waistband, and took a step towards them.

"Stop!" The goon shouted, training his gun on her. Darcy froze, knife in hand. "Put the knife down!"

"Dude, im-"

"I said put it down! Now!" His hands shook. He clearly wasn't in control anymore, and Darcy expected to feel the shot any moment. "Put it on the ground!"

"Alright." She said, bending her knees slowly as not to startle him. She kept her hands well within sight above her head. "Alright, I'm putting it down. Let's just stay calm."

She set the knife on the ground carefully, and began to straighten up again, just as slowly. "I just wanna check on him." She said, taking a calculated step towards Tom's prostrated body. The goon didn't stop her, but he tracked her with his gun as she moved, "I'm just gonna see if he's alive." She explained again. Keep him calm. Keep your moves clear. She thought back to the tiny amount of hostage training she'd had with SHIELD.

She made it over to Tom, and knelt down beside him. There was a pool of blood growing beneath him already. She checked his pulse...nothing. Damn.

"Well?" Goonie asked more calmly from behind her.

"Dead." She closed her eyes. He was an idiot but he didn't deserve to die like this. She felt a wave of respect for Tom wash over her. He had just been trying to protect Jane's work. He wasn't trained for these kinds of situations. Hell. She was barely trained for these kinds of situations.

*

"That's it," Logan said as he entered Tony's workshop where Professor Xavier, Pepper, and Tony were gathered as Tony frantically worked to get Jarvis back in control of the building, "That's all of 'em."

Pepper was the only one who acknowledged him, "Where are they?"

"Either dead or in holding. The rest of the teams are dealing with them now." Logan said with a snort, "How stupid do you have to be to try and infiltrate a building like this? I mean, what's their end game?"

Professor Xavier spoke up then, "It seems as though most of them were here as a distraction. They were also attempting to steal files pertaining to Doctor Foster's work."

"But we got 'em before they could, right?" Logan asked confidently, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well they haven't gotten the files yet." Pepper said, shifting uncomfortably. She had never had much of a poker face.

"What do you mean 'yet?' Are they still there?"

"It's cool, Darcy'll take him down." Tony added absently while typing away, causing Pepper to sigh, "And I think I've got eyes on the lab."

A bolt of fear shot through Logan's gut, and before he could stop himself, he let out a protective growl. But then he paused and took a breath, Darcy can handle herself, he reminded himself, willing himself to believe that was all she needed right now to be okay. "What's Darcy doing down there?" He still had to school his voice to sound normal.

"It appears she went to speak with Jane's lab assistant, and was there when the breach occurred." Professor Xavier directed his chair to a place where he could see the holographic screen Tony had pulled up. "I spoke to her a few minutes ago to try and assess the situation, and to reassure her."

That at least made Logan feel a bit better. But any semblance of that relief was dashed when Tony finally pulled up the video feed from the lab, just in time for them to see Jane's lab assistant (Tim? Ted?) get shot and go down.

Pepper gasped, and Tony flinched.

"Well shit." Said Tony, bluntly.

They watched as the intruder turned his gun on Darcy, who froze, then slowly sank to the floor to set down her only weapon.

Goddamnit Darce! Logan thought, closing his eyes and repressing another growl. He just barely kept his claws in check. "Stark. You got audio on this thing?"

"Not until I can get Jarvis up and running again."

On the screen Darcy was slowly and cautiously making her way over to the lab assistant on the ground. She pressed her fingers into the pulse point at his neck, and a moment later, they watched in silence as her shoulders dropped. Dead.

Logan suddenly had an idea,  
"Chuck, can you talk to him? Talk him down?"

"I can try. I certainly hope it won't startle him into squeezing the trigger."

Logan glanced up at the screen where the goon's gun was aimed directly at Darcy's head. He certainly hoped so too.

*

"Look, dude-" Darcy was about to calmly plead her case as a 'helpless lab assistant' when she looked up and saw Goonie's face.

He looked as if he had seen a ghost.

And then he began looking around, aiming his gun frantically at the ceilings.

Darcy knew that look. She had even had that look on her face once. Professor Xavier was talking to him.

Good on you, Chuck. She thought with a grim smile.

*

Professor Xavier held two fingers up to his temple and closed his eyes briefly, until he found the man's mind. He opened his eyes again, to monitor the man's reaction on the video feed.

"David," He began, and saw the man's face pale. "David, my name is Professor Charles Xavier." On the video feed, David was waving his gun at the ceiling, trying to find the owner of the voice in his head. Darcy didn't dare move, in case he shot on impulse.

"I am not physically in the room with you David. I am a mutant, with telepathic abilities, and I am not going to hurt you." David seemed to calm a bit at that assurance. Though, beside the Professor, Logan grumbled a bit about wanting to hurt the man himself.

Tony suddenly gave whoop, "And I've got Jarvis back! How are ya' buddy."

 _"I am much better now, sir."_ The AI responded neatly.

"Jarvis, get me audio on Foster's lab."

_"Right away sir."_

Professor Xavier continued speaking to David, "I would like to request that you do not harm Miss Lewis either." The Professor realized that referring to Darcy as 'agent' would likely be a very bad and uncomforting idea for such a desperate man.

"I can't promise that." David answered out loud with a waver to his voice. But now they heard him in the workshop. "My communications have gone dead, which leads me to believe that something happened to my commander and my team." He took a step forward and placed the barrel of the gun against the side of Darcy's head. She held her breath.

"If something happened to my team, then I have no way of getting out of here. She's my bargaining chip."

Logan swore colorfully.

"Now, David, I'm sure we can work with you to arrange something peaceful. But please put down the gun. No one needs to get hurt." The Professor said calmly.

"And no one will get hurt, if I can get out of here scott-free. But if you guys screw with me, so help me god, I will kill her."

In the workshop Logan began to pace.

"You can't just go in there, can you?" Pepper asked for confirmation.

"No," Logan growled out, "It's too likely he'll be able to shoot her before we could save her."

"But she's an agent. She could potentially get the jump on him, right?" She asked again.

"Right," Tony answered this time, "But it's a huge risk. Dude's crazy, desperate, and armed. She might have to take that risk, but she'll have to be extremely careful about her timing. Wait for the right opportunity, and he's not gonna be looking to give her that oportunity. I hate to say it, but I think we need to get Coulson and Fury down here, pronto."

Jarvis spoke up, "I'm afraid that both Agent Coulson and Director Fury are aboard a quinjet. However, they are heading back this way now. They were assessing the ongoing situation in Washington D.C., but began their return when they were notified of the breach in my system."

"E.T.A., Jarvis?" Tony asked.

"Approximately thirty minutes."

Logan kept pacing.

*

 _"Miss Lewis,"_ The Professor was back inside her head, _"Director Fury and Agent Coulson are both en route, however, you may want to talk to him in the mean time. Keep him calm."_

 _Okay...How do I do that? I am seriously open to suggestions here._ She thought, eyeing Goonie carefully.

_"Tell him about you - excluding, of course, anything that may make him tense,or skittish. But just try to develop a rapport with him. Start by introducing yourself."_

_Okay, I can do that. And Prof? Logan still doesn't know I'm down here does he?_

_"No, Miss Lewis, rest easy. Logan doesn't know."_

_Good._ She thought. He didn't need to be freaking out about this. If she got out of here, he could be glad she had gotten out alive, but he didn't need to worry needlessly.

*

"What was that, Chuck? What don't I know?" Logan's hackles were up.

"I simply told her a white lie. She asked that you not be told that she was stuck in Doctor Foster's lab with a gunman. It would only add to her own worries now if she were to know that you were also worrying over her."

Logan didn't like it, but he knew it was probably true.

*

"Get up." Goonie said to Darcy, nudging her head with the gun.

She scrambled to her feet. Of course she knew how to disarm him, but she was going to have to play this right. He was much taller than her, probably almost as tall as Logan, and he probably had nearly a hundred pounds on her. She couldn't just go in for the disarm. He would see her flinch reaction and probably shoot before she could get a hand on the gun. And with his height, there went most of the leverage she needed to force the gun out of his hand.

Darcy realized she was going to have to play this cool. She couldn't be Darcy Lewis, level 6 SHIELD agent, practiced at staying cool under pressure. She had to be Darcy Lewis, lab assistant, the girl who accidentally tased a Norse god and keeps her Scientists up to their eyeballs in Pop-tarts. She was going to have to freak out a little bit, not that it would take too much extra effort on her part. Staying cool under pressure was mostly just High-Stakes Compartmentalization after all.

"Look dude, I'm no use to you. I'm just a lab assistant. Shit, I don't even understand half the stuff the scientists are talking about." Darcy explained (however falsely now, but that really was all she used to be to SHIELD), as he led her over to one of Jane's lab tables.

"Sit." He ordered gruffly. She complied, pulling out a chair and sitting at the table. He pulled out the opposite chair and sat as well, keeping his gun trained on her the whole time.

"Are you really just gonna leave him there?" She nodded towards Tom's body. Goonie, just stared at her, but his next breath shook slightly. He was clearly trying to get a grip, but the one he had wasn't super firm.

After an uncomfortable minute of silence, Darcy spoke up again.

"My name's Darcy. What's yours?"

Goonie said nothing. He just sat across from her, still staring. Darcy kept herself from rolling her eyes, but just barely.

"Dude. I've been calling you 'Goonie' in my head for the last twenty minutes. If you're down with that nickname then cool, but if not..." Darcy trailed off when Goonie lifted an unamused brow. "I'm just saying, just because this is a hostage situation doesn't mean we can't be friendly."

Maybe this was the way to go. Talk him out. See if she could open him up a bit more with some stories.

"You know I was in show choir in high school?" Goonie didn't exactly look like he cared. But she continued anyways, lacing her fingers together in the table in front of her, "Well, I was just in it my freshman year. My sophomore year I started hanging out with this other girl. And she was a senior, so she had a car, and we would go to all these parties on the weekends. She kind of ended up being like an older sister to me in a fucked up way. But she thought all the music kids were super lame - Jesus, this sounds like a fucking after school special." Darcy laid her forehead down on her hands and sighed, "But anyways, my point was that sometimes, I wonder if my life would have turned out any differently if I'd kept doing show choir."

Minutes passed in silence.

"You ever call your mother these days?" Darcy asked out of the blue.

"What?" Goonie looked a combination of confused and slightly personally offended.

"I was just thinking," Darcy's brows furrowed, "I haven't voluntarily called my mom in more than a year. She'll call me, and I'll ignore her calls for as long as I can manage. And then finally, I'll pick up and suffer through forty minutes of her nagging, and whining that I never talk to her before I can finally weasel my way off the phone again." Darcy leaned back in her chair, "I mean, I love my mom. But when did it become such a chore to call her or talk to her?"

Goonie shifted in his seat. His gun was still pointed at her.

"My mom was a debutante, you know." Darcy smiled slightly, "And really that's all she ever wanted for me. To be a Deb, and to have a big, expensive coming out party, and for me to wear a big expensive, poofy, white dress, and parade around in front of all her society friends to say, 'Darcy Lewis is officially open for business.'"

Goonie cleared his throat.

Darcy pressed on, "But my mom gave up on all that with me. She got tired of me wearing my ratty old Chucks to cotillion, and catching me out back smoking with my friends, and finding out that I'd snuck out in the middle of the night. So I never had a coming out party. I mean, how hard would it have been for me to just suck it up for one damn night to make her happy?"

"It's not worth being unhappy to make someone else happy." Goonie finally spoke. He stood up, and began to pace.

Darcy shook her head, "But she's my mom."

Another silent minute passed.

"I haven't spoken to my mother in four years." Goonie said, his eyes far away.

"No time like the present." Darcy offered.

"Hydra doesn't work that way." Said Goonie, a sense of finality in his voice. And then he asked, "What ever happened to your friend?"

"She dropped out, but we stayed friends for a while. Then when I was a senior, she got into a car crash that killed her...What the fuck is it with car crashes?" Darcy wondered aloud.

Goonie sat back down, and they were quiet for a few more uncomfortable minutes.

*

"Chuck, we gotta do something. We can't just keep her in there with him. He's nervous and unstable." Logan only just kept his voice from betraying his nerves. He had been pacing for the last thirty minutes and was getting more anxious every second.

"Jarvis?" Pepper asked the AI, "Do we have an update on Coulson and Fury?"

"Actually ma'am, they have just landed. I will be informing them of the current situation as soon as they disembark."

They waited around in tense silence until the door to Tony's workshop flew open. Fury stalked into the room in his long leather coat, looking as menacing as ever. Coulson was hot on his heels.

"Sit-rep. Now." Fury barked at no one in particular.

Logan was the first to speak up, "Darcy and Foster's lab manager got stuck in her lab during the breach. A hydra operative entered the lab, shots were fired, and the lab manager is dead. The operative has since taken Darcy hostage." He practically snarled.

"Is there a way to contact them in the lab from here?" Coulson asked, taking off his jacket and laying it on a worktable. He began to roll his sleeves up.

This time Tony answered, "There's Jarvis, and maybe Darcy has her phone on her. But so far, all our contact with them has been through the Professor, here."

Coulson and Fury both looked at Professor Xavier, "You've made contact with the hostile?" Asked Fury.

"Yes," Professor Xavier explained, "His name is David. He is a Hydra agent, but he is nervous and armed. He claimed that he wanted to use Miss Lewis as a bargaining chip, when he realized his team was either dead or detained."

Fury's face twisted into a scowl, "We don't bargain with Hydra."

That pushed Logan over the edge, and his claws flew out with a metallic _snikt_ , "We have to get her out of there! He could kill her!" He shouted, his shoulders tensed.

Fury turned his attention to Logan and stared him down. His eye challenging the mutant to make a move. But Coulson was the one to defuse the tension.

"Agent Lewis is very good at her job." Coulson's brow creased as he surveyed the video footage that Tony had pulled up, "She knows how to take down an armed gunman. She just needs a decent opportunity."

*

 _"Miss Lewis,"_ The professor's voice was back in her head, and she felt herself relax instantly, _"Director Fury, and Agent Coulson have just arrived. They have expressed their preference not to bargain with this man, and are fully confident in your abilities to disarm him."_

 _Great. So if I fuck up, it's all on me._ She thought, looking around the room and doing her best to make it look casual. With the table in between them, she would never be able to disarm him from the front. Her arms weren't long enough, and Goonie still had an advantage with height and weight at this angle. She needed an excuse to stand up and make her way behind him. She spotted the coffee maker on the counter behind him, _Wait, I think I have a plan._ She thought, and she hoped that the Professor was listening.

"Hey, dude. You mind if I make some coffee? My adrenaline rush is fading." Asked Darcy, faking a stiff laugh.

"Fine." Goonie grunted.

Darcy pushed out her chair, and stood slowly. She prayed he would stay seated, and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't get up. He did turn slightly in his chair, to keep an eye on her, but she noticed that his gun hand was relaxed. She walked over to the coffeemaker and began assembling a pot.

"You wanna cup?" She asked, turning the machine on, and turning to face him and lean against the counter.

"No." He replied curtly.

"Your loss dude. I make amazing coffee."

"I never much cared for the stuff." She was surprised when he spoke. "Even when I worked as a barista in college. I think it made me dislike it even more."

He turned his head away from her, and his gun hand was still relaxed, "I was always coming home smelling like coffee."

Darcy saw her chance. She shifted until she stood behind him, "Yeah, I bet that sucked." She said, and then leaned forward and made a grab for the gun.

Her right hand closed around the top of the gun as she simultaneously elbowed Goonie in the face with her left arm. He sputtered and coughed, and he tried to jerk the gun away from her, which knocked them both over to the ground. Darcy knew she needed to stay on top of him because of her size. If he got her beneath him there would be no way she could fight him off. So she scrambled to sit up, and she got him face down on the ground right away. Her hand was still on the gun and she slammed his hand into the floor and dug her knee into his wrist until he let go.

She stood up and pointed the gun at him. He was groaning and trying to sit up.

"Jarvis?"

"Director Fury and Agent Coulson are on their way down, Agent Lewis."

"Thanks J-man."

"My pleasure, Agent Lewis."

Goonie was sitting up and rubbing his wrist.

"You better stay down, Goonie."

"It's David." He groaned.

"That's nice, but you're still fucked, David."

Behind her, the door opened.

"Nice work, Agent Lewis." Came Coulson's voice behind her.

Several lower level SHIELD agents ran past her to quickly detain and cuff the Hydra agent. Once he was cuffed and being taken away, Darcy lowered the gun, and put the safety on. She felt Coulson place a hand on her shoulder, and she felt her adrenaline begin to drain away. She was suddenly profoundly exhausted.

"That was some disarm move, Lewis." Fury's voice came from her other side.

"Yeah, well, I had to improvise a bit." She turned around to face them. "Debrief?"

"We'll debrief in my office in twenty." Coulson told her, as he led her out of Jane's lab and into the elevator, with Fury just a step behind them. The medical personnel were just arriving with a gurney to take Tom's body away. "I think there are a few people in Mr. Stark's workshop who would like to see you first."

Tony's workshop was only two floors away, and in about ten seconds the doors were opening and she was being crushed into an almost suffocating embrace. Darcy quickly recognized Logan's musky smell of leather and sweat, and she finally relaxed completely. She wrapped her arms around his waist as he pressed a hard kiss against her hair. They stood like that for almost a full minute before Tony made some borderline lewd comment, and they heard Coulson clear his throat.

When they broke apart, Darcy met Logan's gaze, and while he said nothing in words, his eyes made it clear that he had a lot to say - just maybe not in present company. But all the same he kept a protective hand against her back, which helped to ground her.

Pepper came up to Darcy and gave her a gentler hug, but she gave her a pointed squeeze and said, "I'm so glad you're okay, Darcy."

"Yeah," Tony chimed in, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze as well, "Nice moves, Tex. Way to kick ass."

Professor Xavier directed his wheelchair over to Darcy, as Pepper released her. "It is good to see you unhurt, Miss Lewis. That was some quick thinking, and a good show of excellent reflexes in there."

"Thanks." Darcy said to everyone in general. Then she let out a long and exhausted sigh, and leaned even more of her weight into Logan. "I could really go for some of that coffee I started to make." She laughed sluggishly.

Coulson cleared his throat again, and she remembered he was there. "Let's get down to my office so we can debrief as quickly as possible, and get you some coffee."

"Or a nap." Darcy said, fighting a yawn and failing.

*

The debrief was thankfully short, as Coulson had promised. And as soon as they finished, Darcy shuffled out of his office, where Logan was waiting to take her up to her apartment.

He was strangely quiet the entire way up to her place. And once inside, he crushed her to him once more in a fierce hug.

"Christ, I'm glad you're alright." He said into her hair.

"How-" Darcy hesitated, "How much of that whole thing did you see?" She asked, tightening her arms around him.

"Everything from after that kid got shot."

"So pretty much all of it."

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Great."

Logan pulled back just enough to look her over. "You really are okay though, right little lady? Nothing's hurt, bruised...?"

"I'm fine. Really, Logan." Darcy placed her hands on his chest and looked him in the eye, "Where's all this coming from? Frankly, this is just a slightly more exciting day at the office."

Logan sucked in a breath, "I just...Seeing you in there - from the surveillance - it scared the hell out of me, Darce. He could've..." He closed his eyes and suddenly Logan looked his age - all one hundred-plus years, "He could've killed you so easily. And I'm thinkin' hard here, but I can't remember the last time I was ever scared like that."

Darcy reached up to cup his face with her hand. "I'm okay, Logan. He didn't hurt me. I'm okay." She reassured him calmly.

He leaned forward then and kissed her. She expected it to be rough and needy, but it was slow and gentle. They kissed until Darcy couldn't hold back a yawn anymore, and Logan chuckled, his mood seemed to lift slightly.

"Let's getchya to bed, little lady." He pressed a hand to her back to lead her into the bedroom.

"Okay, but after I take a nap, I'm going to rip your clothes off and do-" She yawned again, "-very dirty things to you."

"I'm lookin' forward to it." Logan said seriously.

Once in the bedroom, he kicked off his shoes and jeans, and helped her get out of her own before they climbed into the enormous bed. Darcy tucked herself into his side, and he wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her there. She was asleep not even a minute later, and Logan pressed another kiss to her forehead before dozing off, himself.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good morning (or whatever time of the day it may be) my lovely readers!!!
> 
> I went to see my favorite band in concert last night and I'm still really hyped about it, so I edited up a storm this morning to get this chapter in decent posting condition. I've got to get myself a beta, lol. (Also, if there are any Korn fans reading this, let me know in the comments and we can be besties forever!)
> 
> Note, this one is very slightly citrusy...

When Darcy woke a couple hours later, it was already dark outside, and her bedroom was illuminated only by the city lights outside her windows.

She turned over beneath Logan's arm that was draped across her, and she gently extracted herself from his grasp. When she left her room he was still snoring lightly.

Darcy used the bathroom and was just finishing brushing her teeth, when she heard Logan's panicked voice from her bedroom.

"Darcy!" His voice was a low, defensive growl, "Darce?"

She spat out her toothpaste, "I'm in here!" She shouted and popped back into the dark room. "What's wrong?"

Logan was sitting up with the sheets pooling around his waist. When he saw her, he closed his eyes and sighed, rubbing a hand over his face, "Nothin'."

Darcy climbed back into the bed and settled bedside him, laying a hand over his.

"Logan?"

He frowned and let out another heavy breath, "Guess I'm just still on edge."

"But I'm alright. I'm right here."

"I know that." He leaned towards her and she closed the gap between them to kiss him soundly.

The kiss quickly became more heated, and Darcy shifted until she sat astride his lap. He brought one hand up to tangle in her hair, while the other gripped her waist firmly.

It didn't take long before Darcy had shimmied out of her shirt and bra, and had coaxed him out of his shirt as well. Logan's head dipped down to kiss and suck at her breasts, and Darcy could feel him growing hard beneath her. 

By the time Logan had flipped Darcy over and torn her panties away, it was clear he wasn't wasting any time. Darcy tugged his boxers down just enough to release his erection, and helped him line up with her entrance. With one sharp thrust he drove himself into her wet heat, and before she had time to fully adjust, he was already setting a steady rhythm.

It was needy and just bordering on rough, but it was what he needed, and she found her pleasure in that too. She felt him proving to himself that she was there, and real, and safe with every hard roll and snap of his hips. And with every bruising bite she left on his skin, she proved it back to him.

She came twice before he did. And as they lay there in the after glow, sweat-drenched bodies cooling, she knew it was true even before he said it.

"I love you."

So low she almost missed it. But there it was. The reason he had been so terrified of losing her. The reason he had reacted the way he did.

He loved her, and she felt all the confidence in the world when she kissed his chest and said it back.

"I love you too."

He pulled her a little closer into his side, and soon they had both fallen back to sleep.

*

The next morning Darcy woke at five like usual, and slipped out of bed. But after Logan's reaction the night before she made sure to leave him a note, letting him know where she was going and that she would be back.

She got dressed, grabbed her water bottle and headed down to the gym.

Natasha was already there, beating the shit out of a punching bag, and barely breaking a sweat.

"What'd that thing ever do to you?" Darcy asked, making sure to stay just beyond swinging distance.

"Darcy?" Natasha stopped her workout. "I didn't think I'd see you this morning."

"Yeah well, there's no point sitting at home just because some psycho held me hostage for a bit yesterday. I mean, I'm fine. Not a scratch on me."

"Well, I meant that I figured Logan wouldn't be letting you out of his sight just yet. Heard he was pretty freaked out yesterday."

"Oh, that. Well, we kind of worked it out..."

"Uh huh." The redhead gave Darcy a knowing smirk, "How was it?"

"Pretty damn great." Darcy answered Natasha's smirk with her own, and began wrapping her hands.

"I just...It kind of sucks you know?" Darcy continued, "He's virtually indestructible. So when he goes off on a mission, I miss him and of course I worry about him, but at the end of the day I know he'll almost definitely be alright. But I face all the same dangers in my job that he faces in his, but if I get shot in the head, I'm not just gonna go down for a few minutes until my skull fixes its shit. I'm dead."

"You're pissed because the power dynamic is woefully out of balance." Natasha suggested, and she motioned for Darcy to start hitting the bag.

"Yes. Exactly that. This is why I love you." Darcy began throwing a series of punches, relishing the satisfying smack of her fists hitting the vinyl.

"And he loves you, right?"

Darcy paused, holding the bag steady with one hand, "Jesus, how do you know this shit?" But Natasha just smirked and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Darcy, I read people. It's kind of my thing." She tilted her head, "Like how I can tell that you love him too."

"Yeah, yeah, super spy. Like you needed to work for that one." Darcy grumbled and went back to hitting the bag.

"Well don't let anything too interesting happen while I'm gone." Natasha smirked. 

"You're leaving?"

"Steve and I are leaving tomorrow with Director Fury to go back to D.C. for a few more weeks."

"I'd ask more about it, but I'm assuming it's classified."

"That it is. Now come on," Natasha inclined her head toward the floor, "Let's hit the mats. I've got a new take down to teach you."

*

Coming back from her workout with Natasha, Darcy was in the elevator when her phone rang.

She figured it was Logan checking in on her, so she answered without looking at the caller ID. 

"Hello?"

"Darcy? Sweetie?"

Fuck.

"Mom." Darcy cringed slightly, out of habit. She had been screening her mother's calls for weeks, but she thought back to what she had said just yesterday to that Hydra goon. Things said in the heat of a hostage situation should never be taken seriously. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm just great!" Her mother's sweet-as-molasses southern drawl came through the speaker. "I've been trying to call you for weeks, Darcy-lou."

Darcy cringed again at her mother's favorite nickname for her. She stepped off the elevator on her floor and made her way down the hall to her apartment.

"Well, mom, I've been really busy with work. And Jane - you remember Jane, right? She's been working on a lot of new things, and some of it's classified, so..." Her mom knew that she had been working as a lab manager in New York, and had even met Jane once. But Darcy hadn't exactly informed her mother about her career switch when she became an agent. If there was one thing that becoming an agent had taught her, it was that you had to pick your battles. And telling her mom that she was a top-secret government agent, and got shot at on a semi-regular basis, just seemed like a battle she didn't need to fight.

Darcy entered her place and dropped her water bottle on the kitchen counter. She heard the shower running through the wall.

"And that makes you too busy to call your poor mother back?" Her mom asked dramatically.

"Mom, I'm sorry. What's up?" Darcy hoped such an apology would suffice, and changed the subject. She flopped down on the couch, knowing this would probably take a while.

Her mom went on to describe the church potluck she had gone to the previous weekend, and how the sour cream peach, and blueberry pies she had made had disappeared much faster than Mrs. Sheffield's overcooked cherry pies.

Darcy vaguely heard the water cut off through the wall. But she continued _m'hmm_ -ing in the appropriate places.

Darcy was fending off her mother's attempts to convince her to move back home when Logan walked into the living room, toweling off his hair, and wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. He made his way over to the couch, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"Darcy? Darcy Ann Lewis, are you even listening to me?" Her mother practically shouted over the phone, making Darcy jump. Logan raised a scruffy brow in question. Damn his mutant hearing.

"Yes, mom. I'm listening. I just got a little distracted." Darcy half-heartedly glared at Logan and smacked his chest playfully.

"Well that's very rude, Darcy-lou. As I was saying..." 

Logan sat at the far end of the couch, his smirk still firmly in place. _"Darcy-lou?"_ He mouthed, and Darcy kicked at him with her feet, which he easily caught and began massaging gently.

Darcy had to stop herself from groaning her pleasure into the phone. Her mom was on a roll now.

"...since your cousin Fiona is getting married then. And I just think it would be the perfect time for you to come home and visit."

"Mom, did Fiona actually invite me to her wedding? Because that's usually important with these kind of things. People get mad when you crash their weddings."

"Well...no. But her soulmate isn't a Baptist, so it's not as though she's setting her standards very high to start with."

"Mom, now _you're_ being rude. God doesn't care what denomination you are, just that you show up." She may have been paraphrasing Dolly Parton from _Steel Magnolias,_ but she hoped her mom would get the point.

"And when was the last time you set foot in church? But I suppose you're right... All the same, you should come home and visit your poor mother. And if you came to your senses and left that big ol' city, you could even move back into your old bedroom here!"

"I'm not moving back to Texas, mom. I like my life here, just fine."

"Well if you did move back, you might meet a nice boy and settle down. You remember the Hartley family from church? Well, their oldest son, Brian, just graduated from law school and-"

"Mom! Mom, stop. I am not moving back home. And I have no interest in Brian Hartley. Besides he was such an ass to me when we were kids."

"You watch your language!"

Logan laughed out loud, and Darcy kicked at him again, shooting him a glare.

"Well now, who was that?"

"No one mom. I've got the T.V. on."

"Darcy Ann, now don't you fib to your mother! I heard someone laugh, now who was it?"

"It was just my friend Logan, mom." Darcy glared again at Logan who smirked.

"Are you dating this Logan?"

"Mom, please..." Darcy sighed.

"It's just a simple question. And don't you lie to me!"

"I...um, kind of?"

"'Kind of?' You tell me the whole truth right now!"

"Mom, I'm twenty-six. You think you could actually treat me like an adult once in a while?"

"Darcy Ann Lewis, I am fixin' to get cross with you now."

Darcy sighed, and covered the speaker with her hand. "I hope you realize this is all your fault." She said to Logan, who just kept on smirking, looking thoroughly amused. "Yes, mom. I'm dating him."

"Is he your soulmate?"

Shit.

"Um..."

"Darcy Ann! Is this boy your soulmate?"

Darcy pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand, "Yeah, he is." She was starting to get a headache.

"Well, good Lord, just come on out and say it already. I'll be. Getting anything outta you is like pulling teeth. Now, you'll just have to bring him along when you come visit."

Logan dropped his smirk, and Darcy picked it up. _"That's what you get!"_ She mouthed across to him.

"Sure, mom. I'll make sure to do that. I know he's looking forward to meeting you." Logan glared at her, but Darcy ignored him.

"That's wonderful, Darcy-lou. You just make sure he treats you right. Your father was a good man, but he had an awful temper on him."

"Mom, dad was an abusive drunk, and it's better for both of us that he's gone. Logan would never hurt me." She could feel Logan's stare on her, and she couldn't meet his eye. He squeezed her feet supportively, "I have to go, mom." 

"Well, alright. But don't ignore my calls anymore. And I mean it that I want you to visit!"

"Okay mom. We'll figure it out. I love you."

"I love you too, Darcy-lou. Be safe."

"I will. Bye mom." Darcy hung up, and dropped her head back in exasperation. "Ughhh!"

"You alright there, little lady?"

"Yep." Darcy pulled her head back up with some effort, "We got any whiskey?"

"It's eight thirty in the morning." Logan said seriously.

"I don't know what it is about talking to my mother, but I always feel shorter when I get off the phone with her. Do I look shorter?"

"You look beautiful." He said, dropping her feet and crawling up the couch to cover her body with his own.

"I look like a sweaty, disgusting mess that just came from the gym." She laughed and pushed half-heartedly on his chest.

"But you still look beautiful." The look in his eyes was so sincere that it gave her chills. 

She leaned up to kiss him for a moment, but then pulled back. "I'm pretty sure I've got the day off after that fiasco yesterday. You wanna go out and do something? Maybe get some breakfast somewhere?"

Logan sat back onto his heels, "You call being held hostage a _'fiasco?'_ "

Darcy shifted to sit up higher, "When I come out of the situation perfectly fine and injury free? Yes, I do."

Logan looked away, "Jesus, Darce."

"Logan, look at me." He reluctantly turned his head to meet her serious expression, "I have seen you in your jumpsuit when you come home from missions, where the leather is ripped and torn apart, and I can only imagine what kind of wounds you had that caused that damage. And it tears me up inside, knowing what pain you must have felt, and that you were hurt at all. But I all but know that you'll always come back to me." 

Darcy took his hand, locking their fingers together, and let out a heavy breath, "I wish I could give you that same guarantee. But I can't, and I can't imagine what you must have felt seeing me in that room yesterday. But I have to move on from it, because I am fine. I can't dwell on what might have happened because of my mortality. And you can't either, because it will make us both miserable."

Logan sighed and looked away again, bringing his free hand up to rub at his face. His stress tell. After a moment, he looked back to Darcy, and brought their joined hands up to his mouth to kiss the back of her hand.

"You're right. I'm makin' myself crazy over this. But...I meant what I said last night, Darce. I love you. And maybe it's selfish, but I don't want to lose you when I've barely gotten to have you. I could stand the pain of having my body torn apart a thousand times before I could stand the pain of losing you."

"Well then I get to be selfish too. I don't want a life that's so cautious I can't even live. I can't have that. I want to live _with_ you, which means I'll be at risk sometimes. But I could just as easily die crossing the street and getting hit by a bus, as I could on a mission." Darcy made to stand up, "So let's go out and get something to eat. And if any rogue busses come along, I'll let you jump out in front of me, okay?"

Logan huffed a laugh at that, and nodded slowly but didn't let her up right away. "You know, you're right about somethin' else too," he looked her straight in the eye, and she supressed the urge to squirm. "I would never hurt you. Not ever. I know you said it, but you believe it, right?"

"Oh, Logan." Darcy stilled, "Of course I believe that. I know that."

"Alright little lady," he let out a breath, and there was just a hint of a smile in his eyes. "Let's go get some breakfast."

*

Logan seemed better in the coming days. He got back to work training with the teams - save for Natasha and Steve who were still in D.C. And to Darcy he seemed much more relaxed. Not that she wasn't still going a little out of her way to relax him. She was slightly more tactile than usual, trying to convince him that she was there, and okay, and in one piece. But he finally seemed to believe her.

Most of the structural damage to the tower from the Hydra attack had been fixed, and everything was starting to get back in order. Tony was outfitting Jarvis with hundreds of new codes and protocols in the hope that nothing like that breach could ever happen again. Jane had practically squeezed the life out of her for saving her precious research, and Thor had lifted her off the ground when he hugged her. He claimed that he too was in debt to Darcy for defending his soulmate's life's work when he could not. That man took loyalty to a new level, but Darcy found it endearing.

She had spent most of the morning filing paperwork for Coulson, who was sending her out on a operation the following day. And she figured she'd stop by the labs to check and see how the Tom's replacement was faring before she left. So far, Ronald was much better than Tom ever had been, though Darcy felt a little guilty for thinking it.

"'Sup Ronnie?"

"Hey Darcy!" He said cheerfully. That was the other thing about Ronald. Where Tom had always resented Darcy and felt intimidated by her, Ronald genuinely seemed to like her.

"How are my favorite nerds doing this fine day?"

"Good. Really good," He rolled his chair back so she could see the report he was currently typing up, "Jane's been working on establishing short-range portal connections, and I already got her to eat half a turkey sandwich and an apple. Tony hasn't blown anything up in almost a week, and he's talked to Pepper on the phone twice today. And Bruce's got a new set of healing serums that seem to be working on the plants he's been testing them on. So he's in a great mood."

"Dude. You rock." Darcy high-fived the stocky brunette. "Don't forget, Jane should be about to start her period, so she's gonna be moody and more disorganized than normal. Just sneak in a few extra snacks and it helps balance out the mood thing. Preferably chocolate."

Ronald nodded. Darcy had given him a full file on each of the Scientists Three and their personal habits and working preferences. Which in Jane's case meant extra chocolate around her time of the month. Darcy was also glad when Ronald didn't even blink at such details. That made him good in her book. She found few things more repellent than men who were more grossed out by periods than they were by things like rape culture or the wage gap.

She gave him a wave and left the labs in his capable hands to head to her appointment with Dr. Reichert.

*

"You say your nightmares are starting to ease up?" Dr. Reichert adjusted her glasses thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Darcy tucked her legs beneath her on the couch. "I haven't even had one since the Hydra incident last week."

"That seems promising. What's changed recently?"

"It think it helps to have someone beside me almost every night. And I, uh... I told Logan I love him."

"And you think it has something to do with that?"

"I dont know. Maybe?" Darcy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I think I just finally feel completely relaxed there, you know? Like my subconscious can relax."

"That's usually a good thing to feel with love." Dr. Reichert smiled, "Has he expressed his feelings to you?"

"Yeah. He said he loved me first, actually."

"You seem happy."

"I am. I think I finally realized that we don't have to end up like my folks. Like, I know we won't fall apart, or like the universe got us right."

And Darcy meant it. There were moments when she was growing up that she dreaded the day she would meet her soulmate because of her parent's situation. But she finally knew with full confidence that her situation would never be like theirs, and Darcy suddenly realized how happy she was.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! I've been writing up a storm, and I couldn't wait to get this one out! After this chapter, I've got a ton of ideas, with a few of them decently sketched out. But I need to let them settle into place a bit and figure out the best flow for things. So hopefully it won't be too long before Chapter 10 goes up (I do have it started...) but it just might not be as speedy as some of my recent updates.
> 
> But here is Chapter 9, with lots of action and lots of Logan feels! This is where the plot starts to get really plotty...

Darcy was still training several times a week with Kitty. Kitty's offensive fighting had improved a lot in the past few weeks, and their friendship had grown stronger as well. But Darcy was still looking forward to Natasha returning from D.C. with Steve. Her morning routine just felt off having the redheaded assasin gone for so long. And she was starting to miss Steve too. He often helped keep Tony in line where she couldn't. And seriously that man and his fancy goatee was starting to get on her last nerve.

She had just come from Tony's workshop, where she had been trying to get him to put down a blowtorch to eat something. Right now she was looking for Ronnie, to wrangle some backup.

She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and she took it out to check who it was. But Darcy's phone was lit up with a mass alert she'd never seen before.

**Hydra has infiltrated SHIELD. All agents be on guard.**

All of a sudden she heard a gut-wrenching roar from Bruce's lab.

She knew that roar. She'd heard that roar before, but only in battle.

Darcy didn't think, she just took off running back towards the lab, as other people started fleeing in the opposite direction.

 _Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!_ She thought as the sound of shattering glass and gunshots came from Bruce's lab. This time she heard the roar again, and she saw a flash of green through the lab window. She whipped around the corner just as the Hulk came smashing his way through the glass wall in front of her. She dove to the side to get out of the way as the Hulk barreled past her and another wave of gunshots rang out.

Darcy felt the heat in her thigh before she felt the pain. Warm blood soaked her jeans where a bullet had caught her in the leg. She clenched her teeth and looked up. The Hulk was still running and smashing his way down the hall and she considered herself lucky that he hadn't seen her when she dove out of the way. But thanks to said dive, she could now feel the sting of tiny cuts all up her arms from the glass that had shattered around her.

Darcy gingerly picked herself up off the floor, gasping through her teeth as she put weight on her leg. She hadn't seen the gunman follow the Hulk out of the lab, so she knew he must still be inside. She thanked her lucky stars that she actually her side arm with her that day, since she had been due to meet with Coulson later. Carefully, she limped into the lab, and unholstered her weapon. Scoping out the area she spotted the gunman, and she hid behind a section of crumbling wall. His back was to her but when he turned his face to the side, she could see that it was Ronald.

 _That rat bastard!_ Darcy thought, mentally kicking herself for not catching it, _And to think, I liked him better than Tommy!_

He was sweeping piles of paperwork and files into a briefcase. Darcy saw what looked like a flash drive plugged into Bruce's main computer. She wasn't sure if it was Bruce's or Ronald's but she knew that either way it wasn't going to be going with Ronald.

His back was turned to her again, and he had begun taking several of Bruce's experimental serums and packing them into the briefcase. Darcy stepped out from behind the wall, favoring her injured leg which throbbed painfully with each movement, and she gritted her teeth against the pain.

"Give it up Ronnie."

Ronald spun around and brought a hand to the gun on his hip. In his other hand was a syringe full of one of the serums.

"Ah ah ah, Ronnie. Don't even think about it." Darcy limped towards him, but she had her gun trained towards his heart, "Put the serum down."

"Dumb bitch. You couldn't even see what was right in front of you." He took a step away from her, but she kept advancing, "Go ahead. Shoot me. If you cut off one head, two more will take its place."

"I've had it with you Hydra fuckers. You and your fucking Nazi poetics can suck it. So drop the goddamn serum, Ronnie. I'm not gonna ask again."

"You know I can't do that." Ronnie moved quickly, bringing his arm down. Darcy shot at him, hitting him in the chest and he went down. But as soon as he hit the ground she staggered suddenly, feeling a burning sensation seeping through her arm. She looked down and saw the syringe he had been holding was now sticking out of her upper arm, the plunger depressed nearly all the way.

Darcy pulled the syringe out of her arm and dropped it on the ground. The room began to spin, and she staggered again, reaching out for the lab table and missing. She crashed to the floor, and everything went black.

*

Logan was in Darcy's apartment when his phone buzzed. He was expecting it to be a text from Darcy, so it took him a moment to catch the severity of the message.

**Hydra has infiltrated SHIELD. All agents be on guard.**

Instantly he shifted into fight mode. He left the apartment and ran down the hall, but the elevator was down. He took the stairs instead, sprinting down nine flights of stairs to the level where SHIELD based their New York HQ. The floor where Coulson's office was. Where Darcy's desk was. He knew she had a meeting there today...

Logan kicked open the door, and briefly looked around - then quickly ducked as bullets were fired to his left. The whole floor was in chaos, but so far he didn't see Darcy anywhere. He fisted his hands and his claws flew out as he jumped into the fray.

He lost count of how many Hydra turncoats he slashed or impaled, and he couldn't be sure of when Bobby and Peter had shown up, just that Iceman and Colossus were suddenly fighting beside him. He saw Coulson shouting orders to a group of agents across the room, and then deftly taking out a Hydra agent eighty feet away with a single shot. 

He wondered where Darcy was and if she was safe. He hoped she had thought to grab her sidearm that morning. But since they had slept at her place the night before, there was at least a decent chance.

He was unfocused enough, thinking about Darcy, that he didn't notice the Hydra goon on his three until the bastard was emptying his clip into Logan's side. He doubled over, feeling the pain bloom through his ribcage and feeling the momentary rush of warm blood fill his lungs before the pain shifted to the feeling of flesh and sinew mending and healing themselves again. When Logan stood straight once more, he saw the fear and utter cowardice flash in the man's eyes as the mutant stalked towards him. Then in one slash to the throat, the fear was gone, replaced by empty lifelessness.

"You getting distracted over there, Wolverine?" Peter asked, as several bullets ricocheted off his chest, and he used his metal arm to slam someone against a wall where they slumped to the ground.

"I'm sure Darcy's okay, Logan. She can hold her own. We'll find her as soon as we've cleared this floor." Bobby reassured him sincerely.

Logan just nodded tersely and kept fighting.

Coulson had fought his way over to them, "We have to clear this floor! There are Hydra plants in nearly every department!"

Coulson gave several orders, and Logan had no interest in arguing. The man clearly knew more about this agency corruption than he did, and besides, Logan generally trusted Coulson.

Eventually, they cleared the floor of hostile agents and the battle seemed to be dying down all over. But after checking in with Jarvis, it seemed the entire tower was in chaos. There were bodies everywhere and places where the floor and walls appeared painted with red.

Apparently part of the ceiling in Jane's lab had collapsed. Thor had been visiting Jane in her lab at the time of the attack, and had kept her safe, but Mjölnir had caused a decent amount of damage.

There were nearly fifty other Hydra agents who had been taken into custody, and a rough count of almost a hundred more who had either been killed, or had killed themselves with cyanide capsules hidden in false teeth - a Hydra specialty - when they realized they were losing.

Logan was standing with Coulson and Bobby, and several other haggard-looking agents when he heard someone shout his name.

"Logan!"

He turned and saw Kitty jogging up to where they stood, "Darcy's been taken to medical."

He felt a sudden flare of icy fear rush through his blood, "What? What happened to her?"

"I don't know. She got shot in the leg, and...something else. I don't know, they wouldn't say. But I think it's bad. You'd better-"

Kitty hadn't even finished her sentence before Logan was sprinting down the hall, and into the elevator. 

Jarvis had informed them that several of the medical staff had been Hydra moles, so there was a short of medical personnel to deal with the many casualties. When he reached the medical floor, it was noisy and flowing with people. But he ran through the halls until he saw Tony and Jane outside of one of the rooms.

"Where is she? Is she okay?"

Jane - who was covered in dust and had two butterfly bandages holding closed a long cut on her cheek - put a hand on his arm. Her tiny presence calming him a surprising amount. "Logan-"

"What happened?"

Tony shared a look with Jane before answering, "They're not entirely sure."

"What do you mean-"

Tony interupted him, "She got shot in the leg, and she lost a little blood, but that's okay," Logan's gut twinged at that, "They think she might have passed out and hit her head. She's not entirely lucid right now."

"What? Where was she?"

"She was in Bruce's lab. I should check Jarvis' video feed, but we think she ran in there when Bruce Hulked out."

"What!? He didn't...Did he...?" Logan had fought beside the Hulk in battle, and he didn't want to think about what might have happened if Darcy got in the way at the wrong time.

Jane cut in then, "We don't think Hulk had anything to do with it. Well, maybe some of the cuts on her arms and face from the glass breaking. But it looks like after she got shot in the leg she shot a Hydra agent in Bruce's lab. But then she must have passed out from the blood loss and hit her head."

"You don't know if she hit her head?" Logan asked, closing his eyes and breathing in slowly through his nose to keep from snarling at the poor woman. How could they not know? He figured a head wound was usually pretty easy to spot.

Jane explained, "There aren't any external signs of cranial trauma. But the doctor says she's really disoriented right now, and it seems like a severe concussion. They're taking her in for a CAT scan in just a minute."

Logan could see into the room via the small, square window in the door. Darcy was laying on an exam table, and a nurse was bandaging her thigh while a female doctor shone a pen light in her eyes and asked her questions. Darcy's head was rolling a little, and she kept blinking her eyes in an unfocused way.

Then, without warning, Darcy began thrashing her arms and trying to sit up. Logan clenched his fists and bit the inside of his cheek. He felt Jane's grasp on his arm tighten, and he only just kept himself from snapping out his claws.

The doctor and nurse tending to her stood immediately and did their best to hold her down and calm her. The nurse hit a button on the wall, and a second later two more nurses came running down the crowded hall. Tony jumped back and Jane pulled a stunned Logan out of the way as they pushed open the door and started helping to hold Darcy down. It sounded through the door like she was trying to say something, but her words were slurred and unclear.

After another minute Darcy seemed to pass out, and her head lolled to the side.

Logan finally had to look away and began pacing.

*

Darcy could hear voices but they sounded fuzzy and unclear, as if she was underwater. She thought she heard her name, and she tried to open her eyes, but everything was hopelessly blurry. There was a dull throbbing pain in her right leg, and someone was shining a bright light in her eyes.

She tried to ask them questions. Where was she? Where was Logan? Did they know about Hydra?

Wait.

Had she been taken by Hydra?

What if these were the bad guys? She tried to sit up, but several strong hands held her down. She kept struggling, and the edges of her vision began to darken. No! No, she had to get out. She needed to find Logan. The darkness swelled in front of her eyes, until everything went black again.

*

Logan continued to pace until the doctor who had been tending to Darcy opened the door, and shut it again behind her. 

"I'm Dr. Chang. Are you her soulmate?" She asked, taking her glasses off and propping them on top of her head.

"That's me," Logan replied. "Is she okay? What's wrong with her?"

"Well, mister..." The doctor led, looking for a name.

"Just call me Logan."

"Well Logan, Darcy has multiple shallow cuts on her face and arms, but with a little antibiotic those should heal on their own. We got the bullet out of her leg, and patched up the wound. But she's been in and out of consciousness, and she seems very disoriented. It could be a severe concussion, so we're taking her in now to have a CAT scan. We want to rule out the worst case scenarios here, but with the way she's behaving, it's a good idea for us to see if there might be any bleeding on the brain causing a cerebral edema."

"But what if there is? Is she gonna be okay?" Fear gripped at his heart like a vice.

"If there is any bleeding, we'll have to see how severe it is to decide how to proceed. Surgery is a possibility, but more likely we can put her on corticosteroids or a diuretic to bring any swelling down. We'll get her in for the CAT scan now, and I'll update you as soon as I know anything."

Logan nodded in thanks and went straight back to pacing a rut into the shiny linoleum.

*

Darcy was vaguely aware of being moved as the darkness eased slightly. She heard a muffled voice tell her to lie still, but she wasn't sure she could move in any case.

A moment later she heard a loud buzzing sound, and then all she knew was blinding pain.

Darcy screamed through the haze. It felt as though every inch of her flesh was being roasted from the inside out. The buzzing stopped and she felt hands on her again, trying to hold her down. She hadn't even realized she had begun thrashing around until she was being restrained.

It must be Hydra. She came to the conclusion that they must have taken her, and this was some form of torture. She didn't even know what they wanted from her.

She screamed against the pain, until she felt the darkness pulling at her once more. _No..._ She thought frantically as she felt herself sinking back into unconsciousness, _I have to get out...I have to find...Logan..._

*

When Logan couldn't stand to pace any longer, he settled into a black vinyl-padded chair in the crowded waiting room with Jane, Tony, and Clint, who had shown up while Logan was talking to the doctor. The archer was flipping through an outdated People magazine, but gave a supportive nod as Logan leaned forward to rest his forearms on his knees. Logan returned it solemnly.

A few minutes later, Bobby, Kitty and the rest of his team showed up. James had gotten grazed by a bullet, and they had been waiting for him to be treated and released. Logan was bouncing his legs nervously, and looked up when Kitty put a comforting hand on his.

"It's going to be alright, Logan."

He grunted in acknowledgement. He felt as though he should be grateful that he had people around him who supported him. He had a team; two teams; one big team - it just depended on how you looked at it - that were there for him.

And not only him. He knew that they were really there for Darcy. The one who helped cook dinner, and baked cookies, and never thought twice about giving to others. Whether it was a hug, or advice, or her time, she was always there for her friends. And he knew that this group of crazy vigilantes he had found himself in, were just that: Friends. Or family even.

He thought that he'd found that when he first ended up in Westchester. But this was even better. This was more. He had his soulmate here, and he finally felt whole for the first time in forever. And now he could feel it on the verge of being ripped away from him.

Part of him felt like it was the universe correcting a mistake. Like the cosmos realized that they had blessed him with too many good things in the last decade or so, and they had to take something back to even the score.

Bruce and Thor rounded the corner then. The scruffy scientist looked exhausted. There were shadows beneath his eyes and his skin still held a greenish tint in the right light. The Hulk always took so much out of him.

Bruce felt especially terrible that it was the Hulk that had initially gotten Darcy hurt. When Bruce sat down, he explained that when he found Ronald trying to steal information, he had tried to stop the turncoat lab manager. But Ronald had pulled out a gun and shot at him, which was what brought out the Hulk.

Jane moved to sit beside Bruce, and wrapped her arms around him. She assured him that it wasn't the Hulk that had hurt Darcy at all. That none of this was his fault.

It was just then that they heard a piercing scream from down the hall where Darcy had been taken. Logan was out of his seat and halfway down the hall in an instant, with Thor, and Clint, and half of the others hot on his heels.

"Darcy! What happened!?" Logan was shouting as several nurses tried to hold them back. "Darce!"

The scream came again, and Logan shoved past the nurses. People jumped out of their way where they could. Even among agents, the X-Men and Avengers were an intimidating crowd.

Logan saw a sign indicating the CAT scan room. Dr. Chang was exiting the room with a worried expression.

"What the hell happened to her!?" Logan's voice came out in a low growl.

"Logan." The doctor looked up, startled, "That's exactly what we're trying to figure out. We are running tests to see if there's anything we can rule out. I can assure you that we are doing our very best right now." Dr. Chang said.

Logan growled, but felt a strong hand on his arm holding him back.

"Your care is appreciated by us all. My shield brother is only worried for the health and safety of our dear Lady Darcy." Thor had turned on his diplomatic charm, but the worry he too felt for Darcy was still palpable. The air nearly crackled with static at his words.

It was only because he could practically feel the demigod's anger matching his own that Logan kept himself from shrugging off Thor's hand.

"We will be moving Darcy into a private room until we have the test results." Dr. Chang seemed to consider something briefly, "Normally it wouldn't be allowed yet, but you may wait in her room with her." She took a heavy breath, "We are doing our very best, Logan. I promise."

Logan turned away, but heard Thor thank the doctor.

Twenty minutes later, Logan was sitting beside Darcy's bed, holding her hand like a lifeline. As if by feeling the heat in her fingers, and the thrum of blood rushing beneath her skin he could convince himself that she would be alright.

She looked like hell. There were shadows beneath her eyes, and her skin was pale and palid from blood loss. There was a cut above her left eye, and many more all along her arms. And her leg was propped up slightly beneath the blanket from the gunshot wound in her thigh.

"She'll be okay." Logan looked up, and saw that Clint had come to stand beside him at some point. The archer was staring at Darcy with his arms crossed, his brow furrowed seriously. "She's a fuckin' fighter. Whatever this is...She's gotta be okay. She's too stubborn not to be."

Logan said nothing but nodded his head. It was true, he had never met a more stubborn and determined person. And that thought gave him a strange amount of hope.

People rotated in and out of the room for what seemed to Logan like forever. But he was distracted and distant the whole time, staring at Darcy's hand in his.

So he was startled, a good while later, when Jane spoke up suddenly, "Um...Didn't she have a cut over her eyebrow a little while ago?"

Logan looked up. The only people in the room now were Tony, Jane, and Bruce, though he had no idea how long they'd been there. 

"Yeah." Tony said, "She got cut when the lab windows shattered. It-" He stopped suddenly, seeing what Jane had.

"Where are they?" Jane asked to no one in particular.

Logan looked at Darcy's face. Jane was right. Where only hours before there had been an obvious cut just above the center of Darcy's left eyebrow, there was now nothing but smooth skin.

Logan pulled back Darcy's blanket sharply, and lifted her arm, inspecting the skin there. Again, where there had previously been a patchwork of shallow cuts, now there were none.

"They're gone." Bruce breathed.

"Her color looks better too." Jane noticed, "Completely normal."

The look on Bruce's face was indecipherable, "Darcy was found in my lab?" He asked.

"Yeah. She shot the lab manager when he was trying to steal your work." Tony explained.

"Jarvis?" Bruce spoke towards the ceiling as he pulled out his StarkPad.

 _"Yes, Dr. Banner?"_ Replied Jarvis.

"Can you pull up the surveillance footage from my lab at the time of the attack?"

_"Of course, Dr. Banner."_

The video feed popped up on Bruce's StarkPad, and they watched in silence as it showed Bruce facing off against Ronald, and Ronald pulling a gun from his belt and shooting at Bruce. He then hunched over from the impact of the shot before his muscles began to expand and grow as he transformed into the Hulk. Ronald ducked behind a lab table as the Hulk smashed his way out of the lab.

As soon as Hulk was gone, Ronald stood up and began pulling serums off the shelf and packing them into the briefcase he held. A minute later they saw Darcy limp into the frame, gun drawn and trained on him. Ronald spun around and Darcy limped closer. They spoke for a moment - though they didn't have the audio enabled - and then in the same second Ronald brought his arm down sticking Darcy with a syringe as she squeezed the trigger. Ronald fell to the ground almost immediately, but Darcy stumbled, pulled the syringe from her arm, and then collapsed.

Bruce nearly dropped the StarkPad.

"What was in that syringe?" Jane asked, turning her head towards Bruce.

"Oh god," Bruce shoved the StarkPad at Tony, there was a greenish tint to his skin and he rushed out of the room like a bat out of hell.

"What was that?" Logan spoke for the first time in several minutes. He wasn't sure what he had just seen, and definitely wasn't sure what it meant. Darcy's cuts had just disappeared - like she had magically healed...

"Her leg," Logan realized suddenly.

Jane looked at him, "What?"

"Her leg. Her gunshot wound."

Tony stood and went into the hall, and when he returned, Dr. Chang ran into the room behind him. She said nothing but hurriedly checked Darcy's forehead, and then her arms seeing that her cuts were completely healed.

"I don't believe it." She muttered under her breath. Dr. Chang pulled back the blankets covering Darcy's legs and checked the beneath bandage on her thigh. "I absolutely cannot believe it." She said again.

"What is it?" Logan asked anxiously. He had no idea what was happening, and his nerves were so frayed by then that he had no idea how to feel.

"This wound on her thigh. It's barely three hours old, but it looks a week healed at least." The doctor shook her head, "I've never seen anything like it - except..." She glanced up at Logan.

Dr. Chang went to work checking Darcy's vitals, and a few minutes later Bruce returned. He was out of breath when he came into the room, as if he had been running. In his hand he held an empty syringe.

"Banner-" Logan stood and started to question him, but Bruce cut him off.

"I know what's wrong with her. Or what was, at least." He held up his hand, "This syringe was full of an experimental healing serum." Dr. Chang sucked in a breath, but it was the only noise in the room besides the soft beeping of machines, "So far it's only been used on plants. But it slows the deterioration of cells so that they can repair themselves much faster."

Logan could hardly process what he had just heard. He squeezed Darcy's hand.

"So..." Tony began, "she's healing like Cap - or Wolverine would?" He glanced at Logan, a curious eyebrow lifted high.

"That explains the healing of her bullet wound being so advanced already." Dr. Chang sounded incredulous, but to be fair, everyone was.

"Yes, but it's not exactly that simple." Bruce took a deep breath, "From the initial tests I've done, it seems that the serum slows down the deterioration of the cells of the test subject so much that, when activated, it slows their entire physical maturation to one tenth the normal speed." He paused and ran a hand through his messy hair, "If the serum had never been activated, she would have just metabolized it out of her system. But when Darcy was exposed to the radiation from the CAT scan, it activated the serum."

Jane was the first to fully grasp his meaning, "You said it slows their 'physical maturation'...It slows their aging. So Darcy..."

Bruce nodded, "Darcy might have just literally gained nine more lives."

Logan's eyes went wide. _No..._ That was just too good to be true. He'd never had that kind of pure luck, and he was entirely too suspicious to simply accept it, without question. There had to be a catch, "Could it hurt her?" 

Bruce looked uneasy, "It's hard to say...This serum hasn't even made it to human trials yet. It's highly experimental, and I have no idea... I mean, there's no way to tell how her system will react to it."

"Could it..." Logan didn't want to ask the one question that was nagging him so. But he had to know. "Could it kill her?"

Bruce shook his head, "I...I don't think so. It's supposed to help her heal, and it seems like it's doing just that."

Logan felt a wave of relief wash over him.

"My only concern is the long-term effects that might not make themselves known for years, or even decades."

 _Decades,_ Logan thought. He sat back down beside Darcy's bed and sat forward, elbows on knees, and her hand clasped in his. The thought that there might be harmful effects from the serum far down the road was eclipsed for the moment by the notion that he might get to spend decades more with his strong and fearless woman. 

Tony spoke up then, "If the serum is helping her heal, then shouldn't she be waking up soon?"

"Probably. It's more likely she passed out from pain than anything else. When the serum activated- that couldn't have been comfortable, to say the least."

*

When Darcy drifted slowly into consciousness, the first thing she felt was confusion.

Hydra.

Her eyes shot open. But she couldn't focus on anything around her.

She had been taken - hadn't she? Darcy panicked and tried to sit up, gasping for air. But once again, she felt several sets of hands come to hold her down.

It took a moment for things to slot into place. The first, was that she recognized the voices speaking to her - saying her name, telling her she was safe. The faces seemed out of place at first, since Tony didn't belong with Hydra, and neither did Bruce. Jane definitely didn't belong with Hydra. She didn't recognize the other woman standing over her, but She didn't exactly look like Hydra material. Finally, it clicked where she was. She had seen rooms exactly like this one before - in the Avengers Tower medical wing...

Darcy relaxed as the things everyone was saying started to make sense. She was safe. She was on the medical floor at the tower. She was safe. The other woman was introducing herself as Dr. Chang. She was safe.

The last thing to fit into place was the feel of the large warm hand encasing hers. And she instantly felt more at ease. She turned to look at him.

"Logan," she breathed. And his rugged features broke into a rare, full smile.

"Yeah, little lady. I'm here."

Darcy looked down at her arms then. Hadn't they been covered with cuts? Now there weren't even scars.

"How long was I out for?" She asked, turning her free arm over to inspect the other side.

There was a moment of heavy silence in the room, and Darcy saw Tony and Bruce shift uncomfortably. The look on Jane's face was indecipherable. She expected the doctor to speak next, but it was Bruce who spoke instead.

"About that..." he began hesitantly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies if my medical speak sounds not quite right. The extent of my medical knowledge comes from a few anatomy classes for my Dance degree, a bit of internet research, and a lot of Grey's Anatomy.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there, my wonderful and lovely readers!  
> I come bearing gifts in the form of Chapter 10!!
> 
> There are some smutty bits in this one, so hold onto your hats...

Darcy took the news of her advanced healing and tempered aging with a surprising amount of calm. She knew that it came down to her ability for heavy-duty compartmentalization, and that she would have to deal with this eventually. But she supposed that was what she had a therapist for.

Logan shook his head and chuckled when the thing she seemed unable to move past was Ronald's betrayal.

"That rat bastard!" She shouted out of the blue one morning, days after the attack. "I trusted that asshole!"

Reconstruction was starting on the labs, and various other floors where walls had crumbled or windows had shattered from bullets and grenades. Darcy was with Jane, picking through the wreckage of her lab, looking for Jane's computer and flash drives that held most of her research. The majority of the damaged equipment could be easily replaced or rebuilt without too much trouble, but without Jane's research and files, it would be pointless.

"I know, I liked him too. He made the best coffee."

Darcy looked at Jane, affronted, "Better than mine?"

"Yeah," Jane nodded guiltily. "Sorry."

"That rat bastard!" Darcy yelled again, picking up a broken piece of drywall and chucking it angrily across the room. "Dirty motherfucking evil piece of loser HYDRA garbage!" At some point the tears started and she couldn't stop them. She continued to throw things until there was nothing left around her to throw, and Jane gathered her into a tight hug, letting Darcy sob noisily into her shoulder.

Every department was suffering from the infiltration of HYDRA agents, and the subsequent fall of SHIELD as they knew it. But Coulson insisted she take a few days to rest and adjust to her new situation. Darcy didn't care what he tried to portray - that man was a total softie deep down.

Natasha and Steve had returned two days after the attack. They even brought a new recruit, a former paratrooper named Sam, who went by the codename "Falcon." Tony had been ecstatic to get his hands on the man's state-of-the-art wing pack, which Sam used to fly, and fight crime and shit...as one does. Fucking superheroes.

Sam's open humor and friendly personality meant that he fell into sync easily with the rest of the team. Family dinners picked back up quickly - there was virtually no damage to the tower's residential floors since they had such restricted access to begin with - and Sam's ability for storytelling had everyone rolling at the dinner table.

Steve, however, was different. It had gotten out that he had found and fought against his former childhood best friend - and Darcy knew, soulmate. But Bucky had almost killed Steve, saved his life by pulling him out of the Potomac, before disappearing completely. And Darcy could see the rawness in Steve's eyes. Like a wound, long stitched and healed, had been torn open again and left to fester in the uncertainty of everything.

That first night following Steve, Sam, and Natasha's return, Darcy found Steve after dinner and wrapped her arms around him tightly. Both of them said nothing, but there was an unspoken solidarity between them. Now, for more reasons than ever.

And when Darcy and Logan went to bed that night, she held him close with a special reverence and gratitude.

*

Darcy began adjusting to her new enhancements slowly. Her sessions with Dr. Reichert definitely helped her make sense of everything, but things didn't start sinking in all at once.

When Darcy was twelve, she had been helping her Nana to make dinner one evening, when she had been given the task of chopping tomatoes. A task she had performed many times over, and with which she was reasonably practiced. But as she was cutting them up she got distracted and nearly sliced off the tip of her index finger. It had been so bad that she had needed four stiches and it took almost three full weeks to heal. Ever since then, she had always made a point of keeping her fingers tucked in, and slicing against the flats of her knuckles the way they always told people to do on cooking shows.

It was as she was helping to make dinner one night in the communal kitchen - chopping carrots for a massive bowl of salad - that she was hit with the realization. If she accidentally sliced her finger open now, she would maybe need to wrap a towel around it for a moment until the bleeding stopped, but within the hour she wouldn't even have a scar from the ordeal.

She started hyperventilating in the middle of the kitchen, and Natasha made her breathe into a paper bag.

Then there was the time that she was in combat training with several other SHIELD agents, and Agent Sims - who Darcy had been only slightly disappointed to find out was _not_ a part of HYDRA, because at least then she wouldn't have to work with him anymore - had body slammed her to the ground hard enough to dislocate her shoulder. And once her shoulder was realigned in the socket, the mess of mottled black and purple bruising that bloomed across her skin was completely gone by the next evening. (Though it took a whole week for Agent Sims' broken nose to heal when Logan had found out how Darcy's injury had happened.)

It was going to take a fair amount of time to come to terms with her new enhancements, but fortunately it seemed that time was exactly what she now had in abundance (which was a whole other emotional can of worms).

But there was one advantage to the "Serum Situation" - as Darcy had taken to calling it - that she could immediately appreciate...

At first, Darcy was a little surprised to find out that Logan had been holding back in bed. But then it made sense. He had never wanted to hurt her. And while he still definitely didn't want to hurt her, they found that he didn't have to be quite as reserved. And they both liked it.

Just hours after that first time since the serum, Darcy crawled out of bed in the night. She was groggy and sleepy, but the soreness she had expected wasn't there. Logan had been more reluctant before the serum to suck bruising kisses onto her skin, afraid to leave bruises that would last. But when she stood naked in front of the bathroom mirror, she saw that her skin was covered in a mosaic of love-bites, already yellowing. By morning they would be gone. 

They talked about it too. Darcy quelled Logan's concerns that he had been too rough, saying that she enjoyed it. The slight sting or throb of his hands and fingers gripping tighter, or his hips slamming into her _hard, harder, oh god harder_ was so incredibly satisfying in the moment, but no longer left the threat of any negative side effects. They both agreed to explore their boundaries between pleasure and pain. What good were super-human healing capabilities, if you couldn't use them for fun sometimes.

Logan felt relieved knowing that he could finally give into some of his baser urges with her. He still felt the need to hold back a little - he was still physically much stronger than she was. He had more than eighty pounds on her, and knowing she would heal quickly wouldn't dispel the guilt he would feel if he actually caused her legitimate pain.

Though, they certainly weren't always rough when they had sex. There were just as many times when he would climb over her to well and truly make love to her. Laving his tongue across every inch of skin he could reach, until she was thrumming with need. He would lift her leg and drag his lips down the line of it, tracing the smooth skin to her toes. Then he would work his way back up, leaving searing kisses as he went, until he reached her core, which by then would be drenched and throbbing with desire. He licked at her pussy like a man in the desert finding water; sucking on her clit until she thought she might pass out from the pleasure. And when he finally entered her, he would say her name like a prayer - the only religion he ever needed.

*

It was a few weeks after the HYDRA attack when Darcy and Jane were out getting coffee that Jane dropped a bomb on her.

"So I think I might be pregnant."

Darcy had just taken a sip of her latte and spat out it out in her surprise. "What? Seriously?!"

Jane looked nervous, "Yeah. I didn't realize it at first, with everything that's been going on. But yesterday I realized that my period is almost two weeks late. And this morning I woke up when my stomach decided to do a really good impression of that scene in The Exorcism."

Darcy was dabbing at her coffee-sprayed shirt with a handful of paper napkins, and feeling thankful she was wearing black, "How do you feel now?"

"Perfectly fine." Jane said, making a face.

"Shit."

"I know."

"Does daddy know yet?" Darcy was surprised that she hadn't heard anything about this yet from Thor. Partially since the man essentially had two volumes: Loud, and Whispering-dirty-things-in-Jane's-ear.

"Shut up. And no."

"Well why not? I can't imagine him being anything but happy about this."

"I just want to know how I feel about it first." Jane took a sip of her chai latte.

"How do you think you feel about it?"

"I think I'm nervous as hell."

"Are you happy about it at all?"

"I think so. I mean, you know I've always wanted kids. But I just figured Thor and I would plan for this to happen a little more. Like, at least that we'd be married first and then maybe start trying a few years down the road." "This just..."

"Caught you off guard?"

"Yes."

"So how do you think Thor will react?"

Jane sighed, "Honestly, I think he'll be thrilled."

"Okay, good. So what else is bugging you about it?"

"I'm...Darcy, I'm a mess. I need a full time person to help me remember to eat, to shower. Even to sleep. Normal people realize when they feel hungry and they eat. Or they realize when they're tired and just go to sleep." Jane looked Darcy in the eye, tears glazing her stare, "How am I gonna take care of a kid?"

"Awe, Janey." Darcy reached forward and grabbed Jane's hand. "First of all you'll have Thor. And I have a gut feeling that he's gonna make a kickass dad. Second of all, you'll have me. Trust me I'll be there to help you remember to deal with both your kid and yourself." Darcy gave her a reassuring smile, "Besides, babies, much like me, get really loud and annoying when they want or need something."

Janey gave a teary laugh at that, and gripped Darcy's hand tighter.

"Thank you."

"No problem. It's what I'm here for."

They settled into silence for a few minutes, just sipping their drinks, until the full weight of Jane's revelation hit Darcy.

"Man. You're pregnant."

"Yep."

"Holy crap."

"I know."

Maybe it was an effect of now feeling extra protective of Jane given the new circumstances, but on their walk back to the tower Darcy felt a prickling sensation on the back of her neck, as if they were being watched. But once they had reached the tower and were safely inside, she chalked it up mostly to paranoia thanks to all the HYDRA nonsense of late.

*

"Do you remember what I asked you the first day you moved into the tower?"

Logan looked down at Darcy, where her head lay against his chest - the both of them still recovering in a post-coital haze. He stroked a lazy hand up and down her bare back and tried to think back to what they had talked about that day, now months ago. "I can't say I do, little lady."

"I asked you if you thought I could take you."

Logan chuckled, "Isn't that what you just did?"

Darcy sighed, but there was a hint of a smile in her voice, "No. I meant sparring."

"Oh." He stopped up short at that. An instinctual part of him wanted to refuse immediately - surely even pulling his punches he would end up hurting her. That was the constant struggle. Even now, she didn't heal instantaneously like he did. Bruises healed for her in hours; Bones in a day or three. She was still finding the balance within her new physical limits.

But, he supposed, she sparred almost daily with Natasha, who almost certainly didn't pull her punches. He sometimes found himself underestimating Darcy's skill when it came to fighting. Just last week she had landed Clint flat on his back, and he swore up and down that he hadn't been holding back for her sake. She could definitely handle herself, and there was a large part of him now that felt increasingly curious as to how they would match up on the mats.

She still looked up at him, the question hovering in her gaze.

"Alright," he agreed, "Tomorrow morning, let's see wutchya' got." A slow, and slightly devious smile stretched across her face at that.

"Oh boy, mister muttonchops. You are in for a world of hurt."

"That so?" He asked, trailing his hand down her back to slide over the curve of her ass and reach between her legs.

"Ye-hessir," she stuttered as his fingers dipped into her wet folds, stroking her until she began to purr and clutch at his arms. Her fingernails dug deliciously into the swell of his biceps, and her challenge was momentarily forgotten.

But the next morning when Darcy's alarm went off, she dragged a reluctant Logan out of bed. He normally woke later than her, so he was grumpy all the way down to the gym. However, he woke up once he saw her doing a few stretches. It was then that he finally noticed the spandex top she wore, and the way it pushed her breasts up with the heavily burdened sports bra beneath.

And when they squared off on the mats, she stared him down like prey. He raised an eyebrow at that, in the way he knew drove her crazy, and he heard her breathing hitch just the tiniest amount. But Darcy shook it off. She was in the zone, and he was going down.

He didn't even see her first move until she was throwing a punch and hitting him square in the solar plexus. Damn, she hit hard. He blocked her next punch with his right arm and swung towards her with his left. She blocked that hit, and then tried to sidestep his next move but his fist still hit its mark on her shoulder.

Logan was pulling his punches - he had to. If he hit her with full force, just the density of the adamantium fused to his skeleton could easily shatter her bones. But he still gave her enough to make her flinch back and regroup.

He couldn't help teasing her, "You had enough, little lady?"

She met his eyes, and came at him again. He tried to grab her by the shoulder, but she struck the inside of his arm, forcing him to drop his hand. So he brought the other up, this time succeeding in grabbing her by the arm. She gripped his wrist with the hand of the same arm he held, and with the other she jabbed two quick punches to the crook of his elbow, unlocking his arm. Darcy yanked his wrist down and hit him with a right hook. He reeled for half a second, and she took that opportunity to bring her left leg around to kick at the juncture of his right knee. Logan's knee buckled just enough from the sudden impact that he had to catch his balance. And as he did so, Darcy spun around and sent a solid kick to his chest.

"Not by a long shot, old man." She smirked, as he stumbled back from the force of her kick. And she threw him a cheeky wink for good measure.

 _That's it,_ He thought. And he ran at her then. She easily sidestepped him, but didn't anticipate him curling an arm around her to pull her to the ground. She rolled, and faster than she could flip herself back up, he was sitting astride her hips and pinning her hands above her head with both of his.

They were both panting heavily, but before Darcy could say anything, Logan was leaning his head down towards her heaving chest. He nuzzled at the valley between her breasts with his nose and then stuck his tongue out to taste the sweat that beaded there on her skin.

Darcy meant to say something then. She really did. But her snappy retorts disappeared when he dragged his tongue up her chest and across her collarbone. He continued licking up to her throat where he sucked and laved his devious tongue against that spot, just beneath her ear. That spot that always drove her to shiver and moan.

"Well, that's hot." 

They were both startled out of the moment by the sudden voice. They looked up to see Natasha and Clint standing beside the mats. Natasha had her arms crossed and an amused eyebrow quirked nearly to her hairline, and Clint had an utterly lecherous grin plastered across his face.

Darcy expected Logan to let her up immediately, so she was extra surprised when not only did he keep her pinned, but his features arranged themselves into a healthy smirk.

"Can I help you?" He asked them, sticky-smooth as honey.

Darcy gaped at him.

But Natasha rose to his challenge, "I have nothing against you debauching Darcy. Just don't do it on my mats."

Darcy expected Logan to say something snarky back to her then, but he simply looked back down at her with a gaze that made her feel completely naked, and nodded back up at Natasha.

"I think I can manage that." He said, smirking openly.

Then before she caught up with what was happening, he was standing and lifting Darcy up and over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. She let out a yelp with the sudden vertigo of being six feet in the air, and then he was carrying her out of the gym. She would have complained but she had a really fantastic view of his ass as he walked from this angle, and the sweatpants he wore did incredible things to that warm sensation deep in her belly.

*

It was well after lunch time when they finally came up for air. But Darcy had an appointment to meet with Bruce. He had been taking blood samples once a week since he was trying to work up a plot of her rate of cellular repair and decline.

Darcy was toweling off her hair after stepping out of the shower when she presented Logan with a thought she had been turning over in her head for a few days.

"I think I need to visit my mom."

"Why's that?" He asked, rinsing the leftover shaving cream from his face and neck, and drying off with a hand towel.

"She won't stop calling me about it."

Logan chuckled lightly, "Sounds like a decent enough reason. When are you plannin' to go?"

Darcy sidled up next to him at the counter and leaned a bare hip against the cool marble, "I was thinking next week. And it works out since I've logged enough hours in the last few months that I've almost reached the mandatory R&R threshold. So Coulson was gonna force me to take some time off sooner or later anyways."

"Hmm," He set down the towel and pulled her close, resting his big hands on her lower back so she had to tilt her chin up to see his face. "I'm gonna miss you, little lady."

Darcy rolled her eyes, "I don't see why. You're coming with me, punk."

"What?" Logan lifted an unamused eyebrow.

"Oh yes. You heard my mom. I'm supposed to bring you with me the next time I visit. And trust me, I am NOT going to set myself up to be passive agressively bitched at for a week because I showed up without you."

"Darcy."

"Logan."

"I've never exactly been a meet-the-parents kind of guy..."

"We'll you apparently are now, because you're meeting my mother."

Logan sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair, "I'm not gonna win this one am I?"

"Just nod your head and say 'yes, dear.'"

"Christ."

"Yeah, don't say that around my mom."

"Shit."

"That either."


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm starting to figure out the end for this story, but there should be at least a couple more chapters after this one.
> 
> Continued thank yous to all my lovely commenters and bookmarked, and to everyone who's left kudos! You're so very wonderful!

Darcy had just come from Jane's where she had tucked the poor scientist in after a thirty six hour Science! bender. Jane was also still freaking out because she still hadn't told Thor about the baby, and he was gone from the tower for a few days doing diplomatic shit in Asgard. But as soon as Thor was back, Darcy was going to have a talk with the tiny woman about taking better care of herself. It wasn't just Jane that needed food and sleep now, but the Thunder Baby (which was totally what she was calling Thor and Jane's kid) needed food and sleep too.

Darcy had finally extradited herself from the clingy, sleepy, grumpy arms of a dozing Jane, and successfully snuck out of her apartment so she could go finish making arrangements for her trip. But walking back to her place, she ran into Steve.

"Hey Steveo."

"Oh, hi Darcy." He looked exhausted, and the bags under his eyes were even deeper than when she had seen him last. He also had a duffle bag thrown over his shoulder.

"You leaving again?" She asked, reaching out to touch the strap of his bag.

He scratched a hand through his normally neat blonde hair, making it stick up at odd angles, "I'm just...yeah. I'm leaving again."

"You're going after Bucky aren't you?"

"Yeah, doll. I am. Now that I know he's out there, I've gotta find him."

"Of course you do. You takin' Sam with you?"

Steve nodded, "He just gets it, you know? He was there in D.C. Saw Bucky too."

"You guys seem like you make a pretty good team. It's like the Adventures of Captain America and Uncle Sam." She said with a smile.

Steve laughed half-heartedly, "I suppose you could call it that." Then he looked at her, the pure concern reflecting in his blue eyes, "So how are you adjusting?" He seemed to brighten up the moment he could worry over someone else's problems. The man with a plan.

"To the serum? Great!" Steve looked at her skeptically and she shifted her weight nervously, "Okay, kind of. It's a lot to take in. Sometimes it just feels like..." Darcy struggled to find the words to describe it, but Steve found them for her.

"Like your body's not actually your body?"

"Yes! Exactly. Like, for twenty-six years, my body and I had an agreement. I get a papercut; It hurts; Three days later it's gone and I'm fine. But now..." She shrugged.

"You had twenty-six years to adjust to the way your body reacted to outside forces, and suddenly it's all different."

"Yes."

Steve put a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "At least you don't have to deal with entirely new body dimensions too. I spent months running into doors and tables, and knocking things over because suddenly my body took up so much more space than I had been used to."

"Wow. Yeah. But hey, you wear it well now." She gave him an overly emphasized wink, and he laughed.

"Thanks, doll." He dropped his hand from her shoulder, "Aren't you heading out too?"

"Yeah, Logan and I are leaving at the end of the week. We're going to Texas, to visit my mom for a few days."

"Meeting the parents? Good luck."

Darcy laughed, "Thanks, I have a feeling I'm gonna need it."

*

"Hey mom."

"Oh! There's my Darcy-lou! How was the flight? Crowded?" Darcy's mom crowed, when they met her outside of baggage claim. She looked as perfectly coifed as ever, with her shoulder-length brown hair teased to the heavens.

"Actually mom, we took my friend Tony's private plane. So it was pretty cozy."

"Well, look at you. Miss Worldly, with friends in high places. I suppose next you'll be tellin' me that this friend is Tony Stark, and you and Jane work in that big ol' tower of his."

Logan shot a look at Darcy, who shook her head as subtly as she could manage.

"Well, and now I suppose this is your soulmate." Darcy's mom had finally turned her attention to Logan. But before Darcy could say anything, he had stepped forward and offered his hand to her.

"Yes ma'am. Logan Howlett. It's nice to finally meet you. Darcy's told me wonderful things."

Darcy looked at Logan like he had grown a second head. 

Her mother took his hand and squeezed it gently, like the proper southern woman she was. "Well, I'll be. What a gentleman you've got here Darcy."

Darcy looked dubiously from Logan to her mother and back again. She was having a real Toto-we're-not-in-Kansas-anymore moment and she might have been totally gaping.

"Darcy-lou, close your mouth dear. It's rude to look like a fish. Come on now, the car's this way."

Logan had to hold back a laugh, and Darcy just glared at him as they fell into step behind Darcy's mother.

"So, Logan," Her mom asked, "What kind of work are you in?"

Logan wished he and Darcy had gone over details like this on the plane. What the hell was he supposed to say? "Uh...Law enforcement."

Mrs. Lewis brightened up -- if it was even possible -- even more at that, "Oh, you're a police officer?"

"Uh, sure." Logan scratched his beard self consciously and Darcy held back a snort of laughter.

"Well now, that's certainly can be a dangerous line of work. Especially in New York, I'd imagine. You know, I've read that crime rates...."

Darcy rolled her eyes as her mom really got going. This was going to be an interesting few days.

*

"Good god. Do you think she could have hinted any harder about wanting grandchildren?" Darcy said, as they dropped their bags in the foyer of her apartment again. "For a woman who doesn't believe in premarital sex, she sure is gunning for us to get busy." 

"There were a lotta' hints." Logan's eyes were a little wide, and Darcy kept herself from laughing by burying her head in his well worn leather jacket and wrapping her arms tightly around his waist.

"I'm sorry. But you were wonderful. Thank you so much for being wonderful." She looked up at him then.

"Anytime, little lady."

Truth be told it hadn't been as bad as he had expected. Darcy's mom -- while unendingly pushy, painfully nosy, professionally passive agressive, and really handy with the bible verses -- was incredibly kind, and had gone out of her way to make him feel welcome. Even if he felt like he had been putting on half an act for a week.

But even while he had needed to hold Darcy back on several occasions, he had seen how much those two women really loved each other.

While Darcy had trouble getting fully on board with the Baptist enthusiasm of her mother, he saw the way she sunk into her mom's hugs. The way that Darcy's drawl resurfaced just by being home, but would thicken further still every time her mom was in the room. As if being around her mom drew her southern roots straight to the surface like a magnet.

And he saw the way Mrs. Lewis looked at her daughter, as if she were going to disappear at any second. A look that overflowed with a mixture of joy, and pride, and grief all in one.

There had even been one night when he had woken just after one am, to the smell of chocolate chip cookies rising through the house. Downstairs he could just make out the voices of Darcy and her mother chatting quietly. He couldn't quite catch everything they said -- his enhanced hearing still had its limits -- but he definitely heard his name a few times.

Part of him burned with curiosity to know what was being said about him, but Darcy's tone sounded positive, and he didn't want to intrude when he knew Darcy had such little time to spend with her mother. So he stayed where he was, and an hour later he heard Darcy and her mom both climbing the stairs to go to bed. And ten minutes after that, he heard Darcy's bedroom door squeak quietly as she snuck into the guestroom to curl up with him until the sun rose at which point she tiptoed back down the hall to her childhood bedroom (because _of course_ her mom had set them up in separate bedrooms).

Darcy pulled on his hand now, bringing him out of his thoughts, and ignoring his protests as she dragged him down the hall and into the elevator to meet everyone on the common floor for dinner. He had just spent a whole week barely getting to kiss her and hold her and he wanted some time to be alone together. But she had other plans.

"Janey!" Darcy shouted, dropping his hand and running across the room when she saw her friend.

Logan quickly got folded into the excitement as both teams welcomed him back. He easily accepted hugs from both Kitty and Clarice as the others filled him in on what he'd missed in training -- apparently, Roberto had accidentally burned a hole in the mats and Natasha was pissed. Logan laughed out loud at that, realizing then how good it felt to be home.

Darcy looked over from her place on the couch and grinned at the sight of her soulmate laughing with the others. But Jane quickly pulled her attention back when she spoke just above a whisper. You had to be careful in a tower full of genetically enhanced superheroes -- they had good ears.

"So...I told Thor."

Darcy put a dramatic hand over her heart and titled her head, "That you're finally leaving him for me? Good. It's about time."

"Darcy." Jane had her serious face on. Done with the jokes, then.

"Okay, yeah. So you told daddy about baby. How'd it go?"

"He's thrilled."

"Aaannd?"

"I think it made me feel better about things. You were right."

"I usually am."

"Hush, or I won't tell you what you were right about."

"Okay, shutting up now."

"You were right about me not having to do this alone." Darcy smiled, "I've got Thor, I've got you, I've got a tower full of superhuman nannies."

Darcy was about to tell Jane how happy she was about her new conclusion, when something large and purple dropped out of the ceiling vent a few feet over from the couch.

Clint stood, straightened his purple t-shirt, and gave them a serious nod as he went to join the chaos in the kitchen.

Darcy sucked in a breath, "Yeah. Probably don't trust Barton with your kid, though."

"Solid advice." Jane nodded.

At dinner, which consisted of a massive buffet of Chinese takeout, everyone was talking and laughing. It was the first time in a few weeks that the everyone had been home all at once. But Steve was the only one missing from dinner. Darcy nearly choked on her sesame chicken when Sam told her they had found Bucky. It hadn't taken them terribly long, because apparently he had been looking for Steve as well. 

Allegedly Bucky had visited the exhibit in the Smithsonian, and then worked out many of the details from there, tracking Steve down as Steve was tracking him. Sam explained that the reason Steve wasn't around for dinner was that Bucky was still fairly unstable. He was dealing with nearly overwhelming PTSD, and sorting through memories as they resurfaced, which was often a messy and somewhat violent process. He said that Bucky couldn't always sort out the past from the present, or figure out actual threats (of which there were few in the tower) from harmless situations.

Darcy's heart ached for Steve and Bucky both. She was incredibly happy that Bucky had been found, but she felt a wave of grief bubble up in her throat at the thought of what Bucky was dealing with thanks to HYDRA. And that Steve had to watch his love and soulmate go through all of that, just to get back what had been taken from him -- from them.

It was a huge comfort when Logan noticed the way she struggled to compartmentalize this, and he simply linked his hand with hers beneath the table as they finished their meal.

*

Later that night, Darcy couldn't sleep. She blamed it mostly on the jetlag, but she knew deep down that she was still really bothered by the revelation that she would someday have to watch her friends and family get old and gray and die long before she even started to look middle aged. She kept having dreams about being with her mother, shopping in the grocery store or something similarly inane. She would turn around for a second, but when she turned back her mother was old, and sick, and frail. A shell of her younger self, that struggled to walk and stand, to breathe, or even remember Darcy's name.

Darcy gently pulled herself out of the grasp of a snoring Logan and got out of bed. She was hungry in her insomniac state, but she also didn't want to worry about waking Logan by crashing around in the kitchen. So with her iPod in hand and her earbuds tucked into her ears she headed up to the kitchen on the common floor.

She was just rounding the corner into the kitchen when she was startled by a loud crash. Darcy ripped the earbuds out of her ears and looked up.

Standing in the kitchen, backlit by the light from the open refrigerator door, was someone with a face she had only seen in history books -- though now it was partially obscured by a scruffy beard and a long curtain of hair. Someone who had dropped a jar of pickles upon hearing her approach -- coating the floor in tiny shards of broken glass and a pool of pickle juice that was rapidly spreading across the hardwood floor. Someone who had apparently dropped the aforementioned pickle jar to grab a giant cook's knife out of the knife block on the counter, and now held it between them threateningly.

"Bucky." She whispered, more a reflex than anything else.

"Who are you?" He demanded.

It took Darcy a minute to remember how to say anything other than 'Bucky,' or 'holy shit.' But once she did, she held her hands up to demonstrate how completely non-threatening she was.

"Hey dude. Name's Darcy, I'm friends with Steve."

"Steve..." A spark of recognition lit in his eyes, and she grabbed a hold of it for dear life.

"Yeah, your best friend. Captain America. He and I are bros. We're really good friends."

He seemed to process this information for a second. Then, "What are you doing here?"

"I just live downstairs. Same floor as you and Steve actually. Just down the hall." Darcy took a tentative step towards him, and he didn't throw the knife at her face, so she figured that was a good sign. "I couldn't sleep so I came up here to make some food."

Bucky seemed able to accept this explanation, and he slowly lowered the knife. Darcy approached just as slowly and set her iPod on the counter.

"Hey, let's clean up this mess, and then I can make something for the both of us." She said it like a question and he carefully nodded, never breaking eye contact.

"I'm just going to grab some paper towels." She figured it was best to spell out her every action as long as he still held the knife in his hand.

Normally she would have used the broom to sweep up the glass, but the puddle of pickle juice was still expanding across the kitchen floor. So Darcy figured liquid containment was the first order of business.

Bucky stepped aside as she grabbed the roll of towels off the counter and pulled off several sheets. She managed to corral the puddle so that it was no longer spreading, but as she was gathering up the towels to throw them away, she felt a sharp stinging sensation in her hand.

"Shit." She said, after she had dropped the sodden mess into the trash. There was a shallow slice in the side of her palm where she must have nicked it on a piece of glass. Darcy turned to the sink and ran her hand under the tap. For a shallow cut, the sucker was bleeding away pretty happily.

She felt him behind her, which she considered a blessing since it kept her from jumping when he spoke unexpectedly.

"Are..." His voice was just above a whisper, "Are...you okay?"

She shut off the water and turned around to face him. He looked supremely uncomfortable - like he was fighting to understand what to do in the given situation. 

"Yeah, I'm good." She said, flashing a smile that she hoped came off as saying 'Yes, I'm totally fine. But please don't take that as an invitation to continue threatening me with that very large knife.'

"Y-You're bleeding." He seemed to have forgotten completely about the knife in his hand. But the expression in his eyes just made him seem so small and lost. It was all Darcy could do not to rush at him and hug him silly.

"It's okay. I heal fast," She said with another smile. She held up her hand, which had already stopped bleeding, as proof. "See, I'm a good clotter."

"I dropped the jar...my fault." Bucky's gaze dropped to the floor where several sad looking pickles and a pile of glass still lay on the hardwood.

"No no no, It's okay! I startled you. It was an accident - not your fault at all." Darcy grabbed the broom and dust pan and swept up the remaining mess to deposit in the trash bin. After one final wipe down with a towel, the mess was gone, and Bucky relaxed incrementally.

"I was just gonna see what we have to make in here." Darcy gestured towards the fridge, and Bucky let her pass to do so.

She looked in the fridge, and found nothing of consequence, so she checked the freezer.

"And Bingo was his nameo!" She declared pulling out a thin, frozen pizza.

"What's that?"

"It's a Jack's pizza. Probably one of Barton's - for a spy, that man has terrible food hiding skills. But I digress. Jack's frozen pizza is simultaneously the best and worst pizza you'll ever taste in your life. And they cost like three bucks, so they make the perfect intoxicated, late night, college food. I lived on Jack's while I was doing my undergrad."

Darcy preset the oven, and took the pizza out of its packaging, setting it on a cookie sheet.

"A few tricks of the trade, my friend. First of all, the directions always say to put the pizza directly on the oven rack. But it's so much harder to transfer the pizza from the rack to a pan when it's all hot and melty - especially while drunk. And to be totally honest, it doesn't make a damn difference. Second, I always cut the pizza while it's still frozen. Can I see that for a sec?" She held her hand out towards Bucky, and he suddenly seemed to remember he was still holding the large cook's knife. He flipped it over in his hand and held it out to her, handle first. Darcy smiled at him as she took it and continued her story. "Trust me when I tell you that nothing sucks worse than waking up with a killer hangover and serious pizza sauce burns on your hands because you were trying to cut a boiling hot pizza - again, especially while totally hammered. So now, even when I'm completely sober, I cut first, then bake."

Bucky just stood there while she talked, but he seemed to be more relaxed than he had been before which she took as encouragement. Darcy popped the pizza into the oven and set the timer.

Darcy sat on one of the bar stools at the counter, directly across from where Bucky stood. She had no idea what to do or say that wouldn't throw him into panic mode again, so she just settled for untangling the cords of her earbuds in the tense silence.

"Is...Is that..." Darcy looked up when Bucky spoke hesitantly, like he wasn't convinced the words were actually coming out of his mouth. "Is that for...music?"

Darcy couldn't help her smile, "Yeah, dude. How'd you know?"

Bucky's eyes dropped to the ground before he responded even quieter than before, "Steve has one."

"Would you like to listen to some?"

"I don't..."

"Here, it's cool. I can get Jarvis to cue up my playlists so we can both listen." Darcy tilted her head to the ceiling, and then paused. She wasn't sure how hip to modern technology, or at least how hip to Stark technology he was, and she didn't want to scare him. "Have you met Jarvis?" She asked.

He nodded, so she smiled wider and asked Jarvis to pull up her insomnia playlist. She figured it was the safest bet, being full of soothing music and a little jazz. Nothing too reminiscent of his time, and nothing too jarringly modern. So hopefully nothing that would kick up his PTSD and send him into a panic attack.

He seemed to be enjoying it though, and they sat and listened even as the timer went off, and she took the pizza out of the oven. She served up the slices, taking two of the six for herself and giving him the other four. She had seen the way that all the physically enhanced men around her ate, and she assumed he was no different.

She was happy with the tiny upward tick of his mouth as he bit into his first slice.

They ate quietly for a few minutes, the soothing music still playing low in the background. She felt the fog of exhaustion start to catch up with her as she finished her second slice.

"This tastes a bit like a little pizza shop I knew...used to be around the corner from where I lived in Brooklyn." Darcy just barely kept herself from falling off her stool in shock. He was gonna have to stop startling her like that when he talked.

The look in his eyes was so distant, not just miles away but decades. His brows furrowed as he considered the slice in his hand. "Stevie and I used to go there all the time."

Darcy sat stock still. Most of her wanted to encourage this memory, she knew he was fighting to regain so much of what he once knew. But another part of her was terrified that to do so might make his grasp on control crack, and she didn't want to cause him that pain. But a second later he looked back up at her, meeting her eyes. His were no longer far away, but that tiny hint of a smile was back as he finished his last piece of pizza in one huge bite.

After they had finished their food, Darcy tidied up and suggested they call it a night. Bucky agreed with a terse nod and walked with her to the elevator which they took down to their floor. When they stood outside of Steve's apartment, Bucky hesitated at the door as if he wanted to say something.

"It's okay dude." Darcy assured him, "Go to bed. I'm just down the hall if you ever need anything." She looked him in the eye, "Anything at all, just knock, got it?"

Bucky nodded and pushed open the door. When it had closed behind him she let out a sigh of relief she wasn't aware she'd been holding in.

Quietly, Darcy snuck back into her own apartment, happily climbing into bed and curling up with her head on Logan's chest. He shifted in his sleep, a rumbling sleepy noise coming from deep in his chest and wrapping an unconscious arm around her.

She fell asleep easily then.

*

_Agent Lewis?_

"'Sup Jarvy?"

_Security would like to request that you come collect a package that was left for you at the front desk._

"Oh, sure thing. Let 'em know I'll be right down."

Darcy figured on her way down to the lobby, that someone had left an early birthday present for her. Her birthday wasn't for another four days, but she wasn't about to turn down a gift anytime, from anyone.

She signed for the package at the security desk. The box was a little bigger than a shoebox, and when she shook it gently, she heard a quiet rattling inside, like it was full of packing materials.

When Darcy got back upstairs, she set straight to work opening the package -- never being known for her patience. She cut through the clear packing tape, and pulled back the cardboard flaps. Sure enough, the inside of the box was packed full of white Styrofoam peanuts, and she sifted through them until she felt her fingertips brush against something that wasn't Styrofoam. Darcy grabbed for the thin flat edge she felt and pulled it free of the box, brushing away a few peanuts that had staticked themselves to her hand.

In her hand she held a single, 4×6 photo. It was of her and Logan, and she recognized the outfit she wore as being from a few weeks ago when they'd gone out to get pancakes together. The photo looked as if it had been taken from across the street. It could have been taken anyone.

Why would someone send her this? Tendrils of unease worked their way into her gut and settled, heavy, in her stomach. She flipped the picture over and saw that there were words scrawled quickly and messily on the back, the ink smudged in a few places.

_Say hello to the Wolverine for me, beautiful.  
-V.C._

Darcy dropped the picture back into the box and took a shaky step back. What was this? It obviously seemed like blackmail, but to what end? Her mind reeled with the possibilities, and she suddenly felt nauseous.

Who would send something like this?


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I'm sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out! Part of it is because I've been incredibly busy lately. But the other part is that I started another story, and didn't expect such a huge response from it. So I've been trying to balance writing new chapters for both stories when I usually just have one project going at a time.
> 
> But excuses aside, here is Chapter 12! Yay! And it comes with cake and a little bit of fluff:)

Darcy desperately wanted to know who "V.C." was, but she had no idea where to start that wouldn't raise suspicions. Part of her wanted to take the picture and note to Coulson and get his help in figuring it out, but she knew that the minute she did so Logan would freak out and overreact.

Obviously, the picture was sent by someone who knew Logan. Someone who had Logan on their shitlist. And she realized then that she didn't know that much about his past.

She struggled to find a way to ask him about his past that wouldn't set off any alarms. He had just begun to settle into the idea that she wasn't in immediate danger every time she went on a mission anymore, and the last thing Darcy wanted to do was scare him back into protective caveman mode. 

For a while at least, she decided it might just be best to put off asking him about it.

"So wha'dya want for your birthday, little lady?" It was now three days before her birthday and they were coming back from lunch when he posed the question.

"A pony." Darcy joked, stepping into the elevator and scanning her thumbprint to send them up to the residential floors.

Logan stepped in next to her and faced her in the small space. "I'm being serious here, Darce. I'm not great with this kind of thing. Haven't had a lotta practice."

She smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist, but leaned back enough to see his face, "Okay, a unicorn."

"Darcy."

"I don't know? As long as there's cake and mind-blowing sex on my birthday I'm pretty much good to go."

"Well I can guarantee at least one of those things." He promised as the elevator doors opened and he stepped into the hall.

"Hmm. Yes you can." Darcy replied salaciously behind him.

Logan jumped a little, "Did you just pinch my ass?" He turned around to see that she had a wicked grin on her face.

"Maybe." 

"Darcy."

"What?" She shrugged as they made their way down the hall, "Can I help it if my boyfriend has a fantastic ass?"

"Can't be better than my girlfriend's ass." He smirked.

"Why Mr. Howlett!" She said with a mock gasp, "Are you flirting with me?"

"I think that's what the kids are callin' it these days."

"My, my. Color me impressed."

"What? You think I'm only capable of seducin' you?"

"I don't know. Maybe you'll have to show me what that looks like again. You know, just for the sake of comparison."

He gave a low chuckle that turned almost feral near the end, growling deep when he backed her up against the door to her apartment, his hands tangling themselves into her hair as she reached for the knob. He was sucking and licking at the edge of her jaw when she finally found it, causing them both to stumble through the door. Though Logan deftly caught her before she hit the floor and swept her up, her legs coming to wrap themselves around his waist. He kicked the door closed behind them and crossed the threshold to hike her up to sit on the kitchen island.

His mouth latched itself to hers, giving and taking in equal measure for a moment before he kissed the edge of her mouth, her chin, the edge of her jaw, her throat and downward. As he kissed his way down her chest he laid her back on the cool, mottled marble. Darcy was making mewling, gasping noises of want that spurred him on. She shivered and sucked in a stuttering breath when he kissed over the rise of her ribcage, and he nipped the ticklish spot with his teeth before continuing down her belly to her hips. 

Logan pulled back so he could push her skirt up until it was bunched around her waist. She tried to sit up then, but he pressed her back down with one of his large hands spanning across her belly to hold her there. With the other, he teased the top edge of her panties. She was wearing one of his favorite pairs of hers. He leaned down again, his breath ghosting across her hipbone and causing her skin to break out in goosebumps. He caught the edge of the royal blue scrap of lace with his teeth, and gently began working it down her hips.

She moaned then, deep and needy, and he could smell her arousal. The rich, musky scent of pheromones advertising her desire for him and making him painfully hard.

He continued working her panties down her legs until he was dragging them off her toes and he let them drop to the floor. Logan grabbed her hips then and pulled her to the edge of the marble counter. She was soaked for him, he could see it -- smell it. Her hands came to latch onto his hair as he nuzzled his nose against her inner thigh. She spread her legs wider then, hooking them over his broad shoulders. She could feel his breath hot against her wet flesh as he moved closer and-- his phone rang out loudly, startling them both.

"Fuck." Logan cursed, resting his forehead against her thigh. He pulled his phone from his pocket to see the Assemble alert flashing across the screen.

"Ignore it."

He sighed, "I can't, babe. It's an Assemble. I gotta go." Logan stood and stepped away, painfully aware of his raging erection that begged him for attention.

"Noooo." Darcy whined, wiggling her hips. She brought a hand down to touch herself as she gave him her best version of a seductive puppy dog pout (who knew that was a thing?).

He stared at her for moment, laid out in front of him and looking absolutely wanton. Her hair was in a tousled disarray from his hands, her skirt was hiked up around her waist, and her legs were spread wide as she circled her clit with her own fingers.

"Christ. You're killin' me, little lady."

He took a step back in her direction. What was ten minutes, anyways?

_"Mr. Howlett, sir?"_

"Huh?"

_"I have been asked by Ms. Romanov to inform you that wheels go up in five minutes."_

Darcy practically growled. A sound that only proved to make him harder inside his jeans. He was about to tell the AI to tell the Russian assassin to shove it, but Darcy replied before he could say anything.

"Jarvis, please tell Natasha to fuck off. I was about to get some amazing cunnilingus, and then be fucked into next week by my sexy mutant boyfriend."

A moment later Jarvis responded again.

_"I have passed along a version of your message, and Ms. Romanov would like me to apologize to you, Agent Lewis. But she would also like me to tell Mr. Howlett that wheels now go up in four, and that -- if you'll pardon me, I am quoting her directly here, 'If you can't keep it in your pants, she'll come down here and chop it off to see if that will heal itself too.'"_

Well, that certainly took care of his erection.

"Uggghh! Nat!" Darcy groaned, dropping her head back onto the marble counter top and letting her arms flop to the sides.

Logan gave Darcy a hard kiss, and an adamant promise to pick up where they left off the moment he returned, before turning to leave. But as he shifted away from her, with the scent of her arousal no longer clouding his senses he caught a whiff of something else. It was familiar -- something he associated with trouble -- but whatever it was seemed completely out of place here, and he just couldn't put his finger on it. But it was then that Jarvis piped up again -- a two minute warning from Natasha -- and Logan grabbed his go bag and left, filing his concern about the strange scent away in the back of his mind.

*

Darcy's birthday dawned bright and early with a text from Natasha telling her very aggressively, and in all capitals to either go back to sleep or get some mutant ass.

Darcy snorted at the message but rolled over to find Logan already awake for once. And over the course of the next few hours he proceeded to wish her a very thorough happy birthday. He wished her a happy birthday on her back, he wished her a happy birthday from behind, he wished her a happy birthday on the floor, and against the wall, and twice in the shower. In fact, she lost count of the number of times he wished her happy birthday. But needless to say, she felt very happy about her birthday by the time Jane, Kitty, and Clarice showed up to take her out to meet Natasha and Pepper for a girls' lunch and shopping date.

They ended up in one of those fancy as fuck boutique stores where you need both an appointment and a bank account the size of Alaska just to be granted entrance. But Pepper Potts being Pepper Potts took one step through the door, and was immediately surrounded by a flurry of sales people offering her champagne and canapés, and their group was being led back to a private fitting room.

The sales people brought them racks of clothing in their sizes while they settled in and sipped on their champagne. And after Pepper mentioned that they were celebrating Darcy's birthday, twenty minutes later an out of breath salesboy brought them a tray full of gourmet cupcakes from a bakery ten blocks away.

When Darcy went to thank Pepper, the redhaired woman just smiled sagely, "You'd be surprised the number of things people will do for you if you mention it's your birthday." And she bit into her cupcake, getting a smear of blue buttercream icing on the tip of her nose in the process.

"And I don't suppose it hurts to flash an American Express Black card around a little."

"No, it certainly does not."

Darcy ended up with several new dresses, one of which she planned to wear on her birthday date with Logan later that night, and several killer pairs of heels. All of which cost about the same as a semester's tuition at Culver, and which was luckily paid for entirely by Stark Industries.

The ladies returned late in the afternoon, and Darcy unloaded her purchases into her closet. Logan was supposedly finishing up a training session with the rest of the teams, but would be up before long to take her out to dinner.

Darcy was just finishing her makeup when Logan came in to shower and change.

"Good Lord, little lady."

"You like it?"

Darcy stepped away from the counter and spun in a circle for effect. The dress was short with a rounded skirt, and the material -- a cream color with a bold grey pattern -- covered her shoulders but plunged into a deep V in the front, which did fantastic things to her already impressive cleavage.

He stepped forward and rested his hands on her waist, staring at her like a lion might stare at a gazelle.

"You look amazing." He leaned forward and gave her a kiss that tasted like tobacco and mint. "Just out of curiosity," he asked when he pulled away, "How much money would I be throwing away if I ripped that dress off you right now?"

Darcy laughed and smacked his hands away. "Much more than you're comfortable with, I'm sure. And I love this dress, so if you rip it, I'll kill you."

"You can try..." He challenged her playfully, tilting his head forward to nip at her earlobe.

Several minutes of making out like teenagers later, Logan had finally jumped in the shower while Darcy fixed her now messed up makeup, and put on her shoes -- a pair of bright blue Louboutin heels that Darcy had practically drooled over in the store. And when Logan emerged from the bathroom several minutes later, she wanted to drool for a whole different reason.

Who the hell knew that Wolverine could clean up so damn good?

He was wearing grey dress pants, and a black dress shirt, and a grey suit jacket that made her want to do extremely dirty things to him. Darcy wasn't sure she'd ever seen him in anything other than jeans before -- well, at least while he was actually wearing clothes. She let out a wolf-whistle, and he raised a leery eyebrow.

"I feel like I'm in the damn circus." Logan complained, adjusting his cuffs restlessly.

"Well honey, you can climb all over my trapeze any day. You look..." Darcy sidled up to him and took a hold of his lapels, "...Just wow, Logan. You look hot."

"Alright, alright. Let's go before I decide to forget all about dinner and just take you over the back of the couch."

"Hmm," She mused, "That idea definitely has merit. And if I wasn't starving, I'd totally take you up on it." Darcy grabbed her purse and jacket, and he wrapped his arm around her as they walked to the elevator. But once inside, she was surprised when he pressed the button to send them up to the common floor instead of down to the lobby.

"Just gotta stop for a sec'. I left somethin' up there earlier," Logan explained when she gave him a questioning look.

But when the doors opened and Darcy nearly jumped out of her skin, when she heard a loud chorus shouting, "Surprise!" 

They stepped out of the elevator and Darcy saw both teams and all of their friends standing about and smiling at her. Everyone was dressed to party.

Tony came up to her first, drink in hand, and gave her a tipsy hug. "Happy birthday, Lewis. I'd make an off color comment about your boobs here, but your man-candy is standing right there and I don't want him to rip my face off."

"Damn straight, Stark." Logan snarked.

"Thanks Tony," Darcy rolled her eyes, "Who's behind this thing anyway?"

"Eh, how should I know? I just hear the word 'party' and I show up."

"Come on, Tony." Pepper said, coming up behind him to cart him off, "Happy birthday, Darcy."

Darcy thanked her as she hauled Tony away. Jane and Thor came up to them next, the thunder god lifting her up in a suffocating hug.

"Lady Darcy!" He greeted her as he set her down again carefully, "I hope that you will accept my wishes for happiness on the anniversary of your birth!"

Darcy grinned from ear to ear, and readjusted the ladies. "Thanks, Thunder Bro!" Then she gave Jane a playful shove, "Way to keep me in the dark, Janey."

"Don't look at me, it was Tony's idea." Jane said giving Darcy a much more gentle hug. Darcy glanced across the room to where Tony had settled, and was now telling some bawdy story with particularly flaily hand gestures to James, Roberto, and Bobby. That man could put on all the douchey fronts he wanted, but deep down he was a total sap.

Professor Xavier and Ororo were also there, discussing something intently with Bruce and Sam. And Darcy spotted Steve sitting on the couch with Bucky, and the former had a steadying hand on the latter's leg amid all the chaos and loud music. Darcy had seen Bucky twice since the night when they'd eaten pizza together. He was doing steadily better everyday, and there were even talks of him eventually joining the teams to fight in the field. He still had a long way to go before he got to that point though, but it gave him a goal -- another reason to work towards getting better.

Darcy looked around and saw all of her friends -- her family, really -- there, and she felt a tightness in her chest. She turned around and wrapped her arms around Logan's waist, rising up to give him a kiss.

"You lied to me," she teased when they parted.

"You gotta problem with that, little lady?" He teased back, 

"Not really. I guess I'll just have to make you pay for it later." She said with a sly wink.

Logan didn't get a chance to respond because then Kitty was coming up to them and pulling Jane and Darcy off to the wet bar.

Darcy had a fantastic time at her party. Pepper's caterers were, as always, completely incredible, so the food was delicious. Tony had gotten Jarvis to hack into Darcy's playlists, so the music was all of her favorites, and she even got Logan to dance with her for a while. The cake was a three tiered monstrosity with neon-dyed buttercream and sparkler candles, and it took three people from the catering company to wheel it out of the kitchen.

After the cake had been cut and served, and people went back to talking and dancing, Darcy noticed that Logan was missing from the fray. But she found him before too long out on the balcony, a half-smoked cigar in hand. He had taken off his suit jacket, which was draped over the railing next to him, and he had rolled his shirtsleeves up. It took Darcy a moment not to be distracted by the tanned skin of his well-muscled forearms, but then she remembered why she was there and approached him. Though she knew he was already aware of her presence.

"Hey babe, you okay?" She asked, coming up next to him and leaning against his arm.

Logan shifted his cigar to the other hand, so he could wrap that arm around her waist and pull her into his side.

"Yeah, little lady. It was just gettin' a little stuffy in there for me." He took a puff from the cigar and exhaled, "Never been much for parties."

They stood there together for a minute, leaning on the railing and just taking in the lights and sounds from the streets thousands of feet below, with the sounds of the party still clamoring on behind them. But after a while he began to shift uncomfortably, and she keyed into the feeling of restlessness he was giving off. It never ceased to amaze her when he was anxious about something. Her six foot two, impressively ripped, supercentenarian mutant of a soulmate turned into a shy twelve year old boy the minute he became nervous.

"I, uh... I gotcha somethin'. A gift, that is."

"Ooh," Darcy turned beneath his arm and smiled excitedly, "I do love birthday presents!"

He tucked the cigar between his teeth and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small, teal box that was wrapped with a white ribbon. She eagerly held out her hands, and he handed over the box. Darcy untied the ribbon and gasped when she saw the small black lettering underneath that read _Tiffany & Co._ She lifted the lid, and nestled inside was another box, this one the telltale black velvet of a jewelry box. And when she opened this one she felt tears prick at her eyes.

Inside the velvet box was a tiny rose gold pendant, which was set with a heart-shaped diamond and hung from a delicate chain. She glanced up at Logan who was watching her with expectant eyes.

"You like it?"

"Oh Logan," She touched the necklace gently, "It's beautiful."

Logan took the cigar from his mouth and let out a smoky breath, "Good. I knew you wouldn't like anything too flashy. But I wanted to getcha somethin' nice."

"It's perfect, Logan. I love it." She set the box down and unseated the necklace, "Help me put it on?"

Logan brushed aside her hair and took the ends of the chain from her once she unclasped it. He draped it around her neck and fastened it for her. When she turned back around he saw how much it suited her. She was fingering the delicate chain, and the tiny pendant rested just beneath the hollow at the base of her throat.

"It looks good on you." 

"Thank you, Logan." She said, pulling him down for a kiss.

They stopped their kissing several minutes later when they heard a throat clearing loudly behind them.

Kitty was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed and an eyebrow lifted.

"You guys can either get a room, or you can come open your presents."

Darcy's face lit up and she slipped out of Logan's grasp, but grabbed his hand instead.

"Ooh, yes! Present time! Let's go Kill Bill."

Logan chuckled and was just barely able to grab his jacket off the railing before she dragged him back inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone wants some visuals to work with...
> 
> Darcy's dress:  
> https://www.wolfandbadger.com/us/murano-dress/?utm_source=polyvoreUS&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=polyvore-day%20dresses
> 
> Darcy's necklace:  
> http://m.tiffany.com/jewelry/necklaces-pendants/elsa-peretti-diamonds-by-the-yard-heart-necklace-33625014?fromGrid=1&gridpos=103/3231&fromcid=-1&search=1


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my wonderful readers! So I'm super excited that this story just hit 8000 hits! Not the most impressive hit count in the history of Ao3 by far, but for me it's a milestone, so yay!
> 
> So 13 is a bit of a short chapter, but Things are beginning to happen, and this was the best way for me to break up a couple sections. Also, expect Chapter 14 within a few days!

"Hi Darcy." Bucky said, catching up to her in the hall outside the gym. She was just heading upstairs after a particularly killer workout with Natasha.

"Bucky, hey! How are you?" She asked, pushing the sweaty hair out of her eyes.

He smiled, "I'm alright. I just wanted to give you your birthday present."

"Oh, I thought..." Darcy started, but he interrupted her.

"Yeah, I know Steve got you something from the both of us and signed my name to it. But this is from me. It's a thank you for all your help...everything you've done for me and Steve."

He handed her a small package wrapped in brightly colored paper. And Darcy ripped into it eagerly. No matter how old she got, she would always be six years old when it came to opening presents. She gasped when she pulled apart the paper and caught a glimpse of the gift beneath. It was a very old-looking and slightly beat up copy of _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz._ She flipped it over and checked the markings on the inside cover.

"Oh my god, Bucky! Is this a first edition?" Darcy looked back up at Bucky in disbelief.

He scratched his head absently, "I think so, yeah doll. I remembered you mentioned how much you loved that book when we watched the movie the other day, and I thought you might like it."

Darcy was amazed.

"Where did you find this?"

"Actually, it's mine...from before. I had a few things -- things I had in my footlocker during the war. I guess SHIELD had been saving them and Steve got 'em back for me. I'm sorry it's a little beat up, I was carrying it around in my pack for a long time...before. But I originally got it in this little bookstore in Brooklyn. They had a lot of used books for cheap back then."

She turned the book over in her hands again, marvelling at the beautiful original cover illustrations, "God, are you sure you want to give this to me? It must be worth, like, tens of thousands of dollars by now."

Bucky laughed, "I got it for a nickel, doll. And I don't need any of that now."

"This...this is amazing Bucky. Thank you." Darcy leaned up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek, his demeanor changed then. In his smirk, she saw for a moment the Bucky she'd heard stories about; Slick and effortless with girls, and with a snarky confidence that rolled off him in easy waves.

He threw a casual arm around her shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze.

"You're welcome, doll."

*

Logan had been gone for five days, and even though he was due back that evening Darcy was seriously missing him and quickly running out of patience. Coulson had dispatched her on a short mission just before Logan left and so she hadn't even gotten a chance to see him before he left. She hadn't seen him in a week and it was seriously starting to bum her out.

Darcy was coming back from a coffee run for the Scientists Three, when she spotted something sitting outside her apartment door. It was a manila envelope, and when she leaned over to pick it up she saw no address, just her name written in thick block letters across the front. Darcy opened her door and set her bag down, then sat down at the counter to open the envelope.

She tore the top open and carefully pulled out the contents -- Three more 4x6 pictures. Darcy stared at them in horror.

The first picture was of Darcy hugging her mother at the airport in Texas several weeks before, with Logan in the background holding their bags. The second was of Darcy's mother getting into her car outside the grocery store. It must have been taken days later. And the third was of Darcy's mother unlocking the front door of her house.

Darcy couldn't breathe. This person, they knew about her mother -- knew where she lived. She flipped the pictures over with a shaking hand. On the back of the first photo was a note scrawled in the same messy script as before:

_You have twenty-four hours to show until I visit mommy dearest._

On the back of the second photo was an address.

And on the back of the third photo was written:

_Give my love to Wolverine.  
-V.C._

Darcy immediately dropped the photos and put a hand over her mouth. What was she going to do? Who was this person and why were they targeting her?

But she figured the time for secrecy was over. She had to ask Logan who this person was and what they could possibly want. Darcy picked up her phone and tried to call Logan but it went straight to voicemail. 

Fuck.

She knew it was a long shot, getting in contact with him while he was out on an op. But she had no idea what time he would be back that evening, and she figured it was worth a try. She left him a frantic and somewhat tactless voicemail, hoping he would check it before long.

"Hey babe. I hope you get this soon, because there's some psycho stalking me and threatening my mom. I'm assuming he knows you, because he's left me creepy messages for you. And now I'm realizing I probably should have told you about this sooner. But he threatened to hurt my mom if I don't come meet him, so I'm going, and like I said, I REALLY hope you get this soon because I might need some backup. Okay, love you. Be safe saving the world. Bye."

Darcy called Coulson next. Another long shot because _of course_ he had left that very morning to deal with some situation outside of D.C. As a whole, SHIELD was still recovering and still dealing with fallout from the HYDRA situation. There had been rumors that Director Fury was still alive, and given that at one point everyone had thought Coulson to be dead, she personally thought those rumors had some merit.

Coulson's phone went straight to voicemail too. He was probably in the air she figured. But that meant she would be doing this alone.

Darcy ran into her bedroom and grabbed her glock and her shoulder holster, putting it on and throwing a jacket on over it. She also grabbed her taser, because while tasers were technically illegal in New York City, she was pretty sure that wouldn't matter on this particular outing. She tucked a knife into her waistband, and threw her mace into her bag just for the hell of it. Fuck if she was going to go down easy.

And she didn't know how much else this person knew about her. There was no proof they knew she was an agent or that she had an advanced healing factor. It was possible she had a leg up on them.

She checked out the address on the GPS on her phone and found it was down by the docks in Red Hook in Brooklyn. 

Darcy really hoped Logan would turn his phone on soon.

*

Logan was exhausted. The mission he just returned from was supposed to have been a simple recon of several SHIELD agents stuck in a safe house outside of Denver. The agents had made it to the safe house following a mission that had gone sideways thanks to HYDRA, and they had been stuck for several days and were starting to run out of resources.

His mission was just supposed to be a basic extraction with the X-Team, but HYDRA had apparently found the safe house. And instead of just attacking the stranded agents, they had staked out and waited to attack until help arrived. So what should have been a simple two day, in-and-out operation, turned into a three day fire fight that left half of the nearest town in ruins. Bobby had been shot in the leg, and Clarice had ended up with a broken wrist. To be honest Logan had been shot more times than he could strictly recall, but he had kept the rest of his team from any other major injuries, and he considered that combined with finally flushing out and beating back the HYDRA forces staked out there as ending the op on a positive note.

He was in the elevator now, taking it down from the helepad to Darcy's apartment. Logan didn't spend nearly any time at his own place these days. He just didn't see the point. And besides which, he couldn't wait to wrap his arms around his beautiful little spitfire of a soulmate. Maybe take a steaming hot shower -- preferably with her -- and then sleep for hours with her folded into his side.

Logan hadn't even gotten to see her before he left because she had been on an op herself, and fuck, he missed that woman. He was unlocking the door to her apartment (he spent so much time at her place that it was just easier for him to have his own key) when he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He paused and sniffed the air. There was that scent again. He had forgotten all about it since the other day when it had first met his notice, but there is was again.

He knew he associated the scent with trouble, with danger, and yet he just couldn't place it. Logan quickly finished unlocking Darcy's door, ready to tell her to get her stuff and they'd find somewhere else to go -- somewhere safer -- until he figured it out.

But when the door opened the scent hit him even stronger than before. Logan ran into the place, dumping his bag unceremoniously on the floor.

"Darcy?" He shouted, glancing quickly around the living room and heading in to check the bedroom.

"Darce!" Logan shouted louder this time, as he felt an instinctive rush of unease flow down his spine. She wasn't in the bathroom either and his hackles were up when he came back into the kitchen and gave the room a slower and more thorough sweep. That was when he spotted it.

There was a manila envelope and sitting on the edge of the counter and as he moved closer, the scent hit him hard. This was where it was coming from. It looked like the contents of the envelope had been hastily shoved back inside, and he dumped it out on the counter.

Three pictures fell out and Logan felt goosebumps break out over his skin. The pictures were of Darcy's mom. With them at the airport; getting in her car; unlocking her front door.

This didn't make sense. Why was someone blackmailing Darcy? He flipped the pictures over and stilled.

_You have twenty-four hours..._

_Give my love to Wolverine.  
-V.C._

Shit.

That scent.

Victor Creed.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

He pulled out his phone and turned it on for the first time in several days. He had a missed call from Darcy, and a voicemail which he listened to as he began pacing anxiously.

Goddamnit. She was going to meet him. Logan stopped pacing beside the counter then and spoke to the ceiling.

"Jarvis! Did Darcy leave the tower?"

_"Yes. It appears that Agent Lewis left the tower nearly an hour ago."_

"Jarvis, where's Coulson?"

_"Agent Coulson is currently en route to Washington D.C."_

"Fuck!" Logan brought his fist down so hard on the counter that the marble cracked. "Jarvis, get both teams to meet me up on the common floor in five. I need backup _now._ " He ordered.

*

If Darcy could have guessed exactly what the setting for this little rendezvous might look like, she would have gotten it spot on. Honestly, villains were ridiculously predictable.

Her cab pulled up outside the gates to an abandoned warehouse by the docks, and Darcy swore she could hear the cheesy action movie soundtrack playing in the background. She paid the driver and got out, pulling her bag closer to her body. The only thing that could have made the setting more cliché was if there had been a full moon and rolling fog. Instead, the late afternoon sun made her feel almost too warm in her jacket.

Darcy walked up to the gates, and found them latched but unlocked. She unlatched them and cautiously walked across the lot to the warehouse, taking stock of every possible exit she could see on outside of the old building.

She approached the main doors slowly and carefully, pulling her glock from its holster as she went. Darcy eased open the doors and saw that they opened up into a dimly lit hallway that stretched out to either side. She turned to the right and slowly walked down the hall, both hands on her gun which she aimed at the ground.

She wrinkled her nose as the cloying scent of blood tempered with sweat and dirt hit her hard. There was a door up ahead, and she was heading to check it out when she felt something crack sharply against the back of her head. Stars exploded in front of her eyes for a moment before everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> High fives to everyone who guessed that V.C. was Victor Creed -- not that it was particularly sneaky or anything;) But still. High fives all around!  
> And a special shout out to Atlas because I love how excited you got at the mention of Victor Creed:) Double high fives for enthusiasm!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! So there will probably be one more Chapter after this one and as well as an epilogue.
> 
> So about that cliffhanger last time...

Darcy awoke to a painful throbbing in her head. She kept her eyes closed for a moment, so she could take stock of her injuries before alerting anyone who might be in the room to the fact she was conscious again.

Nothing felt out of place besides what felt like a cracked skull, but the pain had already shifted to that of healing bone. Still a heady feeling, but managable under the circumstances. She continued to assess as much of the situation as she could with her eyes closed. She was still fully dressed, though she could feel the absence of her jacket, and the heaviness of her sidearm was gone from its holster. It felt like she was sitting on the ground, with her legs out in front of her and her arms tied behind her back with something rough -- rope probably. That blood mixed with sweat and dirt scent was still there, though more distant now.

Darcy shifted and finally began to open her eyes, but as she moved she felt something pinch into her lower back. Her knife! She schooled her face to keep from giving away the discovery. Whoever this idiot was, they had failed to pat her down before tying her up, and this could be her way out.

Darcy's eyes finally opened fully, and she took in the room she was in. The wide room was empty save for some old chairs and a few overturned crates. The ceiling was high with pipes lining the rafters, and she couldn't see much out of the dirty glass in the few windows that lined the room. She was sitting on a hard concrete floor and her arms were tied behind her, around a pole that went from floor to ceiling.

Across the room, Darcy could see her jacket and bag thrown onto a cheap card table. And sitting next to the table was a man. He had long, somewhat scraggly hair, and an equally unkempt beard. That combined with his ratty flannel shirt, Darcy figured he could pass for an especially dirty-looking hipster.

"You're awake." The man growled out, standing and stepping closer. The calculating flash in his dark eyes, and the quality of his movements had an animal-like and feline quality that made chills run up Darcy's back. They spoke of good reflexes, and that didn't exactly bode well for her.

"Good. I was gettin' tired'a waitin', and I wasn't entirely sure I hadn't killed 'ya." His voice was gravelly, like he didn't spend a ton of time talking to others. "Not that I won't do that eventually. But I'd hoped to have a little fun at the Wolverine's expense first." He smirked, revealing a set of nearly fang-like canines, slightly yellowed, probably by tobacco and questionable oral hygiene.

Darcy shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. Also, her shoulders were starting to ache from the angle at which they were tied back. "Dude, what the hell do you want with him anyways? Who the fuck are you?"

"Looks like Logan hasn't told ya' much about his past then, has he? I'm an old friend. Name's Victor Creed, an' besides gettin hired to bring down that team of bastards in tights, I got beef with that man uh'yers."

"Great." Darcy rolled her eyes, "So who hired you." She figured it didn't hurt to ask, and there wasn't really any point in beating around the bush here.

"That's for me to know, missy. An' your man will be so distracted tryin'a save you that he won't expect the team that's waitin' just outside to take those rich assholes down."

Fuck. They were waiting to ambush them. And Darcy didn't expect for one second that Logan would come without at least some percentage of the Avengers.

"Good luck with that, Hello Kitty."

The second the insult left her mouth she regretted it. His face turned murderous and he stalked towards her like a mountain lion towards his prey. He backhanded her hard across the face, and she gasped as she felt the pain burst through her cheek and eye. Darcy was fairly certain it had cracked her cheekbone, and she tasted blood in her mouth.

Victor was crouched down in front of her now, grinning down at her. The blood, sweat, and dirt scent was overpowering now. He reached for her throat with dirty fingers that ended in truly terrifying claws, and she figured this was it. He was going to slash her throat, or choke her out, and that would be the end of it.

But she was surprised when his fingers instead grazed her collarbone, and she felt a disgusted shiver run through her before she realized what he was doing. He had lifted the tiny diamond pendant that still hung around her neck, and was inspecting it with curious eyes.

"Looks like Logan isn't just messin' around with you, girly." He said before yanking on the chain and breaking it.

"Hey! It has a clasp, dickface!" Darcy yelled, as he stood up again and tucked the necklace into his pocket.

"I'm gonna keep this. A little souvenir to show off to Logan when he gets here."

As he started walking back to his chair, Darcy tried to reach for the knife in her waistband. The angle was awkward because of the way her hands were tied around the pole, but she could just push up the back of her shirt and reach the handle with her fingertips. A few careful taps of her fingers shifted the knife to where she could grab it more easily and she pulled it out, being careful to keep it hidden behind her back.

Victor had made it back to his folding chair and was sitting down, looking impatient.

"Any minute, those bastards will come flyin' in to save you. An' that's when imma kill you. Right in front of 'em."

Darcy was busy working the edge of the knife beneath the ropes on her wrists. She was doing her best to school her face into something calm while she awkwardly moved the knife behind her.

"You're a popular lady, seems like."

He said, looking at something on the table beside him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She bit back.

Darcy finally got a good grip on the knife handle and started slowly sawing through the ropes binding her wrists.

"You've been gettin' calls from all sorts while I've been sittin' here. Logan's called you 'least a dozen times. That stars an' stripes man, his name's Steve, right? He's called a few times. Some woman named Jane, an' someone else named Bucky. Who's Bucky, girly?" He held up her phone, the screen of which was lit up with Bucky's name, indicating a call from him. 

"No one." She ground out from between her teeth, cutting through the last of the ropes around her wrists.

Victor pressed something on her screen and held the phone up to his ear. "Hello," he said in a teasingly creepy sing-song voice.

Darcy heard yelling from the other side of the phone, and she flipped the knife behind her back.

"Nah', she's a little busy right now. D'ya want me to put her on?" He said getting up again, and walking slowly towards her.

Darcy heard more yelling which got clearer as Victor came closer. Bucky was on the other end swearing with flying colors -- she'd never heard most of those words from him before.

Victor was kneeling in front of her now, pressing the phone into her ear. Bucky's yelling was making her eardrum rumble, and she knew what she had to do. And she would only have a few seconds once she did it.

"Bucky! It's an ambush!" She shouted to him over the phone, and she heard him stop swearing.

"Darcy?" He replied, but that was all she heard from him before Victor was swearing in front of her and pulling the phone away again. But before he could move away or hit her again, Darcy was launching herself up and at Victor, knife in hand.

She slashed at him striking him in the chest, and he dropped the phone which cracked on the ground. He let out a feral howl of anger and pain, and he grabbed onto her and they rolled until she was able to scramble away from him. She turned just in time to see the flesh of his chest under the torn flannel stitch itself back together again.

Shit.

He had a healing factor too.

He lunged at her then, quick and catlike, and she dodged his claws which were aimed to rip out her throat. She grabbed him by the arm as he passed and plunged the knife deep into the meat and sinew of his shoulder. 

Victor slashed at her again, and this time caught her in the forearm, slicing the skin open and spattering blood across the floor. Victor ripped away from her then and stood up straight, pulling the knife from his shoulder with a sickening sound.

He laughed maniacally as he threw the knife across the room, where it landed somewhere with a metallic clang.

"You'll have to do better than that, girly." He spat out before coming at her again.

He hit her in the same cheek he'd backhanded earlier, and she winced but held it together to punch straight up into his gut. He bent over slightly, and she brought her elbows down to slam into his healing shoulder then threw a right hook that caught him on the jaw.

Victor stumbled back and raised a wry eyebrow. "Looks like the Wolverine's little plaything has got some moves."

"Come on, asshole." She challenged him, standing defensively.

He pounced then, grabbing her by the neck and taking her by surprise. She gasped for air as he tackled her to the ground and pressed all of his weight into her throat. Darcy was desperately flailing her legs, trying to get some purchase on the concrete slick with blood. She scratched at his hands, and felt his own claws digging and piercing into her skin, and sending warm rivulets of blood running down the back of her neck.

Her vision was blurry with tears, and she felt the pressure of blood building behind her eyes as she struggled for oxygen. But suddenly she heard a loud crash from across the room and a terrifyingly vicious growl like she'd never heard before. And in an instant the weight was off her neck as Logan tackled Victor across the floor. Darcy scrambled back, gasping and choking and slipping a little on the bloody ground.

Logan and Victor were tearing at each other now, Victor's claw-like nails up against Logan's adamantium claws. They were well matched skill for skill. Victor socked Logan hard in the gut, then threw a punch which Logan blocked and used the weight of it to throw him to the ground. Victor rolled and came back up to a crouch, then sprung at Logan.

Logan slashed at Victor's stomach and when the other man fell to his knees, he retracted the claws of his right hand and punched him in the mouth, swinging wide. Victor spat out a mouthful of blood and looked up viciously at Logan before swiping at his legs, cutting a large gash in his calf and bringing him to his knees with a grunt. And before he could recover Victor grabbed Logan's arm and yanked him to the side, pulling his shoulder out of the socket with a loud popping noise. Logan roared in pain, as Victor pinned him to the ground. He smirked savagely and dug his claws into the center of Logan's chest. 

"I'm gonna rip out 'yer heart. See if you can heal from that, Wolverine." Logan yelled ferociously as Victor's nails pierced the flesh and muscle of his chest, and blood began to spill out, staining his white t-shirt a deep crimson.

"Hey fucker, over here."

Both men looked over at the voice, and saw Darcy standing by the table, gun in hand. And in the span of a breath she was squeezing the trigger and emptying her clip into Victor's skull.

He fell over, as good as dead for the moment, and Logan pushed the man off of him and sat up gingerly. He rolled his shoulder until it popped back into place with a stomach-turning crunch. In the sudden silence Darcy was vaguely aware of the sounds of fighting coming from outside the warehouse. But she pushed those concerns aside in favor of making sure Logan was okay. She was already running over to him dropping the gun on the ground as she nearly tackled him again.

"Oh god, Logan! Are you okay?" Darcy exclaimed, her hands fluttering and trying to see and feel all of him at once.

He huffed out a pained laugh, and hauled her into his arms, "Yeah, I'm fine, little lady." He held her for a long moment before pulling back and inspecting her from head to toe. "What about you? What'd he hurt? Where are ya' bleedin'?"

"I'm okay. He got my arm, but I think it's mostly stopped bleeding now." Her forearm was still tender -- it was a deep slash -- but the pain had eased up to just a dull stinging. Her head still throbbed slightly from where he'd knocked her out, and she could feel that the side of her face was still swollen as Logan's fingers traced gently over the bruising there. "He might've cracked the back of my head, and I think my cheekbone's broken, but I'll be okay."

Logan ran his calloused fingertips over the cuts and bruises on her neck, seeing that they had already stopped bleeding.

"Christ. I thought he was killin' ya', Darce." He said, rubbing a hand over his face.

She laughed sardonically, "So did I for a second."

"I fucking love you." He said, cupping her face then and looking her in the eye.

"Yeah well, I fucking love you too." She answered, and he kissed her hard. She winced a little with the force of it but she couldn't pull herself away. For a moment, she had actually thought she might never see him again. She had thought she might never get to hold him, or feel him holding her tight like this, or get to revel in the taste and feel of his tongue as it stroked along her own as it was doing now.

She pulled back breathlessly a moment later, "But wait, how did you get here? I thought it was an ambush-- whoever he was hired by..."

"It was," Logan answered gruffly, "The bastard was hired by HYDRA, who else?"

"They've really got to work on their creativity. This is just getting predictable."

"But I came with reinforcements."

As if speaking of the devil himself, Professor Xavier rolled into the room then, with Ororo and Steve behind him.

"Ah. I see that Mr. Creed has been effectively obstructed for the time being. But we should get him into custody before he manages recover." The professor observed almost casually.

Ororo and Steve stepped forward, as Darcy and Logan made to stand.

Ororo gave Logan a meaningful look and placed a comforting hand on Darcy's shoulder, before moving past them to deal with the prostrate Victor.

Steve came up to them both and clasped hands with Logan, "Glad to see you alright, sir." He turned to Darcy and wrapped her in a big hug, "And you too, Darcy. You okay, doll?" He asked, glancing at her bloodied arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Steve. Thanks."

Steve nodded and moved by them then to help Ororo with Victor.

"We beat 'em back, I take it?" Logan asked the professor. Darcy could feel him keeping a protective hand on her back, but she didn't fight it. She was just too exhausted.

"Yes, Thor and Mr. Stark were able to chase down the last of them trying to escape in a small aircraft. Agent Barton has just informed me very enthusiastically that they have, in fact, been 'fried like bacon' -- His words, of course." Professor Xavier tapped his temple and smiled jovially.

Darcy smiled tiredly back, but then remembered something.

"Oh, wait!" She said, moving away from Logan and over to where Steve and Ororo were shackling Victor's limp body. She leaned over, and dug into one of his pockets, pulling out her necklace. Darcy might've kicked him too as she turned back towards Logan, but eh, details.

"Stupid motherfucker broke my necklace." She complained, holding up the broken chain for Logan to see.

"We'll get it fixed, little lady." He replied and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "But for now, let's get the hell outta here. Its gonna be one hell of a debrief before we can go home."

"Ugh. I _hate_ debriefing."


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my wonderful readers! I hope you've all had, or are currently having (depending on your time zone and when you get around to reading this) a super happy Halloween! My favorite holiday of the year! And this year I'm being lazy and just using my pre-established Bellatrix Lestrange cosplay for my costume, lol.
> 
> But here's a treat for everyone! This chapter took me a while. Dialogue is usually the easiest for me to write, but Darcy and Logan's conversation near the end was giving me some trouble.
> 
> This is the last official chapter, but I am planning to write an epilogue as well. And hopefully I can post that soon. I have it all laid out, but I'm also planning to do NaNoWriMo this year...which starts tomorrow...and I have no ideas. So this should be interesting. But if I end up writing something fanfiction-y I will definitely be posting it here on Ao3! And on a final semi-related note, as of Chapter 14, this fic officially hit novel-length. So I'm proud of myself for that! Yay!
> 
> Okay, I'm done rambling, I swear. You can read now.

Darcy didn't remember falling asleep on the ride back to the tower, but the next thing she knew, Logan was lifting her out of the black, SHIELD issue SUV, with one arm beneath her back and the other beneath the bend of her knees. She didn't complain though, and just curled her arms around his neck and tucked her head into his shoulder to continue dozing as long as she could. She knew as soon as they reached the medical floors she was going to be relentlessly poked and prodded, possibly all night. And she already felt drained from having the shit kicked out of her -- despite how much she'd already healed -- and from having to relive and retell the process of getting the shit kicked out of her during the obnoxiously long and redundant debriefing.

Darcy dozed lightly while they took the elevator ride from the garage up to the medical floors. Bruce was already waiting for them when they arrived, and Darcy forced herself awake enough to pat his arm sleepily at his concern for her return.

"I've already got her set up in here," Bruce gestured to a small private room just down from the nurse's station. Logan carried her into the room and set her down on the bed, which was propped all the way up, then upon Darcy's pleading, left to go find her some coffee. A friendly blonde nurse bustled in to take Darcy's vitals, while Bruce set about taking several vials of her blood.

When the soft-spoken doctor finished he stood up and hesitated slightly before leaning over to give her a warm hug. 

"I'm glad you're okay, Darcy. We'd be a lot worse off without you."

"Thanks, Brucey."

He made a face and shook his head.

Darcy made a noise of discontent, "What? That one's basically just your name. You're the only one who doesn't like my nicknames." She complained.

"Not the only one." Tony said, appearing in the doorway.

Darcy flipped him off with the hand of her non-injured arm, "I'm going to ignore that you said that, you pretentious Transformers reject."

"Well doesn't _that_ just trip off the tongue." Tony snarked back.

Bruce shifted between them, clearly uncomfortable with even the mild standoff. "I'm just going to take these down to the lab..." he said, before squeezing past Tony in the doorway and vanishing down the hallway.

The nurse had told them to wait around for another doctor to take a look at Darcy's arm, which was better than it had been an hour before, but still a bit of a bloody mess.

Barton popped by while they were waiting, giving Darcy a huge hug.

"Where's Nat?" Darcy asked him as he proceeded to find the most precarious surface in the room on which to perch -- namely the laminate counter across the small room.

"Getting stitched up," The archer answered, tucking a leg up under him on his roost, "She got a pretty decent gash on her forehead."

"She get the guy who gave it to her, though?"

"Oh, hell yeah."

"Good."

The three of them talked about the fight for a few more minutes. Darcy had questions and they gave her answers.

After being warned about the ambush, they had doubled up their forces. Though most of the X-Team had just returned from a long mission, Kitty had insisted they help. Bobby and Clarice were still recovering from their injuries after the mission, but everyone else had enthusiastically jumped back into action to come after Darcy. Professor Xavier and Ororo showing up had been unexpected, but the professor explained that earlier in the day he had been alerted to Victor's movements via Cerebro, and they had come to help.

After a while of chatting, Tony pushed himself off the door frame and gave her a mock salute. "I'll see you later, Lewis. I have to go fix Inspector Gadget's arm."

"What?" Darcy sat up from where she had relaxed into the bed.

"Yeah." Tony nodded, "After Barnes got off the phone with you, he passed along the thing about the ambush -- thanks for that by the way -- and then the man sent his fist through a steel door."

"What the hell? Why'd he do that!?"

Barton jumped in then, "Well he was kind of pissed when he realized he couldn't help come after you."

"That's ridiculous."

"I think he just wanted to help. That man cares about you. He and Steve both. And I'm pretty sure Bucky feels useless when he remembers how far he still has to go. Especially when it meant that he couldn't help someone who's helped him so much. He was pretty torn up about it." Barton's expression was serious.

"Face it, Boobs McGee, people love you."

"Shut it, Tony. Don't you have somewhere to be?" 

"Alright, alright. I'm going." He held his hands up defensively and started to step into the hall. But he turned back quickly and leaned back into the room at the last second, "But seriously, Lewis, nice job with the Lion King back there. Glad you're not dead." And then he left, bumping into Dr. Chang on his way out and her way in.

The woman tucked the stems of her glasses into her hair and smiled easily.

"Hello Agent Lewis. Agent Barton, you're going to have to leave."

Barton nodded in understanding, and hopped down from his perch. He gave Darcy a kiss on the cheek and a fist-bump on his way out, and then let the door shut with a soft click behind him.

"So," Dr. Chang started again, crossing the room, "How are you feeling?"

Darcy smiled back at the prospect of being treated by a familiar face, "Better than I was an hour ago."

"I'm sure. Let's take a look at that arm though, shall we?"

Dr. Chang opened the cabinet on the wall and took out a mask and a pair of latex gloves, which she put on before sitting down beside Darcy's knee. She had Darcy lay her arm out on a medical table that she wheeled over and covered with paper.

"Okay," Dr. Chang said, looking at the edges of the gash with a pair of sterile tweezers. "It looks like it's a pretty jagged cut here, but hopefully, given those new genetic enhancements of yours," she glanced up at Darcy, and though her mouth was covered by the mask, Darcy could tell she was smiling behind it, "It shouldn't leave a scar. But I still think we should stitch your arm up to speed along the healing. Given your previous experiences so far, I could probably estimate that it should be healed within the next thirty-six hours or so."

Darcy nodded her assent.

Dr. Chang continued to inspect the cut.

"Hmm." The doctor said thoughtfully after a moment, "Agent Lewis, your birth control device was implanted in this arm wasn't it?"

"Oh, yeah. I guess..." Darcy started as Dr. Chang pulled out several broken pieces of what had, at one point, been a small plastic rod from her arm and laid them on the table next to her wrist.

"I think it's safe to say your implant's been rendered fairly ineffective for the time being."

"Oh shit."

"It's alright Agent Lewis. We'll let your arm heal up a little, and if you'd like to replace the implant we can schedule the procedure in a couple of days." 

"Yeah, I'll be sure to do that." 

Dr. Chang glanced toward the hallway where Logan had shown up again with coffee and was pacing beyond the door. "Well, maybe give it some consideration, and make sure it's something you want at this point."

"Sure...Um, thanks."

"Any if you do choose to replace the implant, just make sure to use another form of contraception until you get the procedure done."

"Oh, yeah. Right."

The doctor proceeded to clean Darcy's wound, and after a local anesthetic she stitched it up and wrapped it in white gauze. She checked Darcy's cheekbone and the back of her skull, and found them both to be bruised but healing already. Dr. Chang gave her a couple of heavy-duty ibuprofen for the residual pain, and estimated it would likely be gone by the next afternoon.

Once Darcy was released, she met Logan in the hall who handed her a cup of coffee.

"Everything okay, little lady?" He asked, peering down at her with concern.

"Yep. Should be healed up in a day or so." She said, stifling a yawn near the end.

"Come on, let's get to bed. I'm beat too."

Darcy nodded, and they started for the elevator.

"I've got to wash all this blood off me first, though." She glanced at his formerly white t-shirt, "And so do you. You look like an extra in a Tarantino movie."

He gave a tired laugh as they stepped into the elevator and she pressed the button for her floor.

When they got back to her apartment, neither of them had enough energy to do more than make out lazily in the shower. Her head was still sore, so after pulling on a pair of boxers himself, he helped her dress in a pair of panties and one of his button down shirts. Then they both fell into bed, completely exhausted. Within minutes they were both asleep, wrapped tightly around each other.

*

When Darcy woke the next day, the sun was high, warming her bedroom through the wide windows. She rolled over, stretching the heaviness from her muscles in that rested way that comes after sleeping incredibly hard the night before. Darcy's forearm felt bruised beneath the bandage, and other than that felt like it was healing well. Her cheekbone was still a bit sore, as was the back of her head, but she was certain that those would both be healed up by the following morning, so she wasn't concerned.

Logan was stretched out beside her on the sun-drenched mattress. The blankets had slipped down, exposing his bare chest, and Darcy traced her fingers along his skin, admiring the way the light and shadows fell around the planes and valleys of muscle there. She pressed a line of soft kisses across his hard stomach, and she felt the moment his breathing changed and he began to stir.

"Hmm. Mornin' little lady." He said, his voice sleep rough and sexy as hell.

"Morning Logan." She said, grinning against his skin. "How'd you sleep?"

"Jus' fine. Woke up pretty well, too. Beautiful woman all but on top uh'me, wearin' my shirt an' all."

"You really like that huh?" She asked brushing her hand lower to feel him hard for her already -- though to be fair, he likely woke up that way.

"Yep, you could say tha--ungh."

What he had been saying was cut off suddenly when Darcy reached beneath the sheets and the waistband of his boxers and wrapped a hand around him, giving his cock a few testing strokes.

"What was that?" She teased, pulling the sheets back and easing his boxers down to release his erection. As usual, she smiled when she saw the words in her curling scrawl across the skin of his right thigh.

"Shit. I don't even remember what I--ungh -- was sayin'."

Darcy delved down to lick a stripe up his cock, from base to tip. "I think..." She took the tip of him in her mouth and sucked lightly, while stroking the base with her hand, "...that you were saying how good I look in your clothes."

"Oh yeah..." He dropped his head back to the pillow with a muffled _thwump_.

She worked him with her mouth for several happy minutes.

"God, Darce. Fuck!" He cried as she swirled her tongue around the swollen head, before drawing it into her mouth and hollowing out her cheeks.

"Get up here, little lady." He said, shifting to sit up. He leaned back against the headboard, and pulled on her hand to bring her further up his body, "I want'cha to ride me."

Darcy made a needy gasping sound as he pulled her flush with his chest, and she felt her nipples harden through the soft flannel.

She felt him reach under her and suddenly a thought occurred to her, sobering her from her lusty haze, "Shit, wait. We need a condom."

Logan stopped his efforts to line them up beneath her, "What?" 

"Yeah, I was so tired that I forgot to tell you last night. But when Victor slashed my arm, he kind of trashed my birth control implant."

"Oh, huh." Logan looked up at her with a strange expression that neared something like guilt, "I uh, don't exactly have one on me, babe."

"Right, of course. Um," she thought out loud, "I think I have some in the table over there." Darcy climbed off his lap and leaned over to the bedside table, opening the cabinet underneath, "Score!" she remarked, pulling out a black box of condoms. She checked the side of the box, "And with a perfectly respectable expiration date too!"

She made quick work of tearing open a foil square and rolling the condom onto Logan's swollen cock. And before long Darcy was straddled across his lap and riding him athletically as he paid adamant attention to her breasts. 

He had undone the top few buttons -- enough to release her breasts from his shirt. And she moaned his name as he sucked eagerly on her nipples, rolling and laving at them with his tongue, making her gasp. 

He began to thrust up harder each time she fell down onto him, pulling him deep inside her. She rolled her hips in a circle, earning a sinfully gruff noise from Logan and a shock of sensation that twisted through her belly. She started to feel her orgasm building and she leaned forward, forcing his mouth away from her breasts and capturing it with her own.

When she came, the sounds of her screams were swallowed up by his mouth on hers. And moments later he came too, his hips stuttering through his final few thrusts until he stilled, breathing hard. Darcy slumped against his chest and rested her forehead against the side of his neck, and they lay there together catching their breath.

After a moment, she reluctantly climbed off his lap so he could deal with the condom. And when he returned to the bed, she laid down beside him, pillowing her head on his chest.

"I can get my implant replaced in a couple of days." Darcy said off-handedly.

"Oh okay." Logan considered what she'd told him. He'd always thought that kids would be a distraction; Something he definitely didn't need in his life. He had the kids at the school, and even some of them were pretty young. He didn't mind those kids since he knew he was helping them. But he stilled the hand that was drawing lazy circles on Darcy's back to think about it. He pictured her pregnant with his kid -- all round and glowing and happy, carrying his baby. It was a heady thought to say the least, and one he was surprisingly comfortable with. He pictured her holding a baby with dark hair and her blue eyes, and he felt something pull in his gut that felt strangely like want. 

"Ya' know, little lady, someday...if you wanted, I mean...kids would be nice. For us."

She lifted her head and he saw the surprise in her expression, "You think?"

"Yeah, I really think I'd like that." He replied, giving her a small smile.

Darcy lifted her eyebrow, "Someday."

"Yeah."

"I think I'm really just enjoying being with you right now, Logan." She said, kissing his bare chest.

"Oh. I uh..." Logan started, but Darcy cut him off with a smile.

"But someday, yeah. I think having kids with you would be great. We sort of have decades before we need to worry about any of that, though. We can do things at our pace, babe." She explained, "Besides, I don't think I'm ready to be a mom right now, and I'm definitely not ready to share you yet."

He chuckled at that, and nodded, "That sounds fine to me, little lady."

Darcy grinned and felt him tighten his grip around her back. Nope. She definitely wasn't ready to share him yet.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness, thank you everyone for your wonderful response to this story. I'm super excited to have finally finished my first novel-length long-fic!
> 
> I'm sorry it took me so long to roll this epilogue out. The beginning of this month was a little bit insane for me. I started a new job (working at a dance studio -- which, Yay! for finding a job that actually relates to my undergrad arts degree!), and I was attempting NaNoWriMo, and I had some family in from out of town, all at the same time. So like I said: Insane.
> 
> I have since, pretty much abandoned trying to finish NaNo. But I did get about 10,000 words of a new Darcy fic out of it, with a lot of attached plans for said story. So hopefully I can keep going with that one, and I'd like to start posting it in a few weeks once I've edited it a bit and written some more. I've also got a bunch of new ideas for a series of one shots... So there are new works to come from me in the near future!
> 
> Anyways. Without further ado...

Darcy woke to the sound and smell of crackling bacon, and her face broke into a warm smile. She turned over to see a deliciously shirtless Logan standing in the doorway, holding a spatula.

"Mornin' little lady. How'dya sleep?"

"Hmmm." Darcy hummed contentedly, stretching a little and sitting up. "Pretty well. But my favorite pillow was gone when I woke up." She pouted a bit, sticking out her bottom lip.

Logan chuckled at that, "Well I think your favorite pillow was busy makin' you breakfast. Big day, today."

Darcy grinned at the promise of food and rolled out of bed, "Well I s'pose if there's bacon, I can forgive you." She crossed the room and rose up on her toes to kiss him before she padded past him and into the kitchen.

An hour later, Darcy was just finishing up her hair and makeup when there was a knock at the door. She heard Logan answer it as she pinned the last tendril of hair in place, and she heard Thor's booming voice greet him. She heard Logan grunt and figured that Thor was sweeping her man into what, for any normal person without an adamantium-infused skeleton, would be a bone-crushing hug.

Darcy heard a small, tinny voice yelling something excitedly and Jane's voice came soon after in response. With a final spritz of hairspray, Darcy deemed herself ready and left the bathroom. 

As soon as she made it into the kitchen, something nearly waist-high and definitely fueled by poptarts barreled into her.

"Aunt Darcy!" The small voice of Thor and Jane's son cried, tightening his hug around her hips.

"Hey Tait. You excited about today?" She asked, brushing a few stray strands of golden hair out of his eyes. Jane wanted to give him a haircut, but Thor was adamantly against it, and it wasn't a major problem except that they had to fight him to brush it everyday.

"Yeah. My mom said that we get to go to a party once all the boring stuff is over."

"Hey, it's not gonna be boring. You get to see your uncle Steve and your uncle Bucky get married. That's really special, because they love each other so much, just like your mom and dad do."

Tait made a face. At five years old he was a little young to understand all that Steve and Bucky had been through, and why it was so meaningful that they were finally getting married.

Darcy rolled her eyes and let him go so he could run over to the couch to watch cartoons, and so she could hug Jane.

"Hey Darcy, you look great." The older woman said, giving her a squeeze. "I think the pants are the best part." She added with a laugh.

Darcy matched her laugh, looking down at her outfit -- a well-worn pair of leggings and one of Logan's button down shirts. "Yeah well, I'm gonna change later. I've got a bit of running around to do before I have to look like a functioning member of society. Plus I haven't had any coffee yet."

"S'on the counter." Logan -- who had pulled on a t-shirt at some point whole she was getting ready -- said over his shoulder from the couch where Tait was currently trying to climb him like a tree while they watched cartoons.

Darcy grinned and glanced at Jane, "You know, I love a man who enables my addiction."

Jane made a frustrated noise at her son and went to go pry him off of Logan's head. Darcy picked up the mug of hot coffee from the counter and breathed in the wonderful aroma of pure energy.

Thor leaned against the counter beside her.

"Are you looking forward to reprising your wedding duties this day?" He asked with a hint of mirth in his voice.

"Oh yeah. I'm the most in demand maid of honor around." She said with a wink.

Darcy had been Jane's maid of honor, when she and Thor had gotten married a few months before Tait had been born. And now, Bucky had asked her to be his. He and Steve had decided just to have one attendant each, and not that they had worried about the gender of their choices, but it worked out that Darcy was Bucky's maid of honor and Sam was Steve's best man.

Between weekly therapy sessions, and the supportive influence of the rag-tag band of warriors and friends who lived in the tower, Bucky was doing wonderfully. He still admitted to the occasional bout of nightmares -- especially after particularly brutal missions -- but he had been fighting with the other teams now for almost five years.

Jane and Thor stayed for a little bit longer, but eventually managed to wrangled Tait away from Logan with the promise that they'd see each other later at the wedding.

Darcy glanced at the clock and quickly chugged the rest of her coffee.

"Hey babe, I'm gonna be late." She told him as she grabbed her purse and the garment bag she'd hung by the door the night before. "I'll see you later, okay?" 

"Hold up there, little lady." Logan replied, standing from the couch and crossing to meet her at the door, "Have I mentioned how beautiful you look?" He gently fingered one of her curls, then stroked her face with the same calloused digit, sending chills up her spine.

"I don't think you did, Black Mamba."

He rolled his eyes at the more ridiculous nickname, "You look beautiful, Darce." Then he bent down to kiss her soundly on the lips, and when they parted again she was fairly breathless.

"Shit, you're good at that." She gasped out, and he chuckled.

"You're late."

"Aw, fuck. I'll see you later."

"Love you."

"Love you too."

*

"Oh my god, Bucky. You look amazing."

"You think?"

Both Steve and Bucky had opted not to wear their dress blues. Instead Bucky was wearing a pair of soft gray dress pants with black suspenders that fastened over a crisp white dress shirt. He had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows while Darcy knew Steve would keep his buttoned at the cuffs. She had also helped them pick out their ties. Both were the same shade of royal blue, though Steve's was a long, skinny tie to go with the gray waistcoat he was wearing instead of suspenders, and Bucky was wearing a bow tie that had already gone slightly crooked.

Darcy let out a low whistle, "I think that if you were straight and neither of us were in seriously long-term, committed relationships I'd be all over you like glitter on a showgirl."

Bucky tipped his head back and laughed.

"Well you look pretty great, yourself doll." She did an obligatory spin in the burnished gold, lace and sequined dress she wore. It had a neckline that brushed her collarbones, and it cinched in at the waist before flaring out into a short and very twirlable skirt.

"Okay, I've got my flowers and your flowers!" She announced. Darcy set down the box she held and lifted the lid, pulling out his boutonnière and her small bouquet. Once again Pepper and her connections had gotten them an incredible florist, Darcy thought it was almost a shame the wedding party was so small.

Darcy helped Bucky pin his boutonnière -- made out of a single white rose, accented with bright blue forget me nots -- to his shirt, and she picked up her bouquet made of the same flowers.

Pepper popped her head into the room to give them a five minute warning.

Darcy looked at Bucky.

"You ready, soldier?"

"Oh dollface, I've been ready for this for the last ninety years."

*

The ceremony was fairly short and very sweet. They kept things simple, with Sam and Darcy as the only attendants. Vows were exchanged, and rings put on fingers. Darcy's favorite detail of the whole thing was that Steve and Bucky had gone to the jeweler's to have each other's army serial numbers engraved on the insides of their wedding bands.

And the entire gathered crowed cheered when the officiant declared them married, and the two men kissed.

The reception, of course, was a party of impressive magnitude that could often only be accomplished with Tony Stark in attendance.

After dinner (which of course has been incredible) had been served and the cake had been cut (Bucky smashed cake in Steve's face, which led to some adorable and very frosting-covered kisses from the happy couple) Darcy found herself leaving Logan in a deep conversation with Clint and making rounds to check on guests.

"Heya Tait. You like the cake?" She asked when she made her way around to Jane and Thor's table. The five year old was enthusiastically shoveling his piece of cake into his mouth and his face, too, was covered in buttercream.

"Yeah! This is my second piece!"

"And his last," Jane muttered under her breath, and Darcy had to bite back a laugh. Jane was a great mom, but Thor was definitely the patient one.

"Hey Aunt Darcy?" The little boy asked, pushing blonde bangs out of his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"When are you and Uncle Logan gonna get married?"

"I don't know, buddy," Darcy shrugged, "It's not like we're in a rush or anything."

"Oh, okay. Can I have the rest of your cake?"

"No." Jane said seriously, "It's already way past your bedtime, and you're never gonna sleep if you have any more sugar."

"Look at you, Janey. Puttin' that cute little foot down and takin' care of other people."

Jane sent her a sly smile, "Comes with the whole mom thing."

Darcy figured it was a good time to distract the kid. "Hey buddy, let's take a spin around the dance floor and see if we can burn out some of that sugar high."

"Okay!" Tait, wiped his mouth on his sleeve and jumped up from the table, grabbing Darcy's hand to drag her to the dance floor.

They danced for several songs but when the music changed to something slower, and definitely by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Logan suddenly appeared by her side.

"Hey little man, mind if I cut in?" He asked Tait, who grinned and ran off to find his dad, who would almost definitely let him have another slice of cake.

"Hey you." Darcy smiled up at Logan's scruffy face as she took his hand and placed the other on his arm. He smiled back and pressed her close with a large hand against her back.

"Hey yer'self."

"You missed me, huh?"

"Nah," Logan said, kissing her forehead, "I was just gettin' jealous seein' you out here dancin' with another man."

"I don't think you have to worry when he's small enough to be standing on the tops of my feet while we dance."

Logan smirked, "Can't help it, little lady. You're just too beautiful. I was afraid he might try to steal you away."

"You look pretty damn great yourself. I mean it, dressy looks freakishly good on you. This shirt is like, ridiculously sexy."

"So I was thinkin'," Logan started, his brow burrowing slightly, "You wanna have one of these sometime soon?"

"What? A dress shirt?"

Logan rolled his eyes.

"No. A weddin'."

"Oh. Are you proposing to me?"

"Might be."

"Huh. Okay, yeah."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

*

They stayed a while longer, but as the party began to wind down in the early hours of the morning, Darcy said their goodnights to everyone -- congratulating Steve and Bucky once again.

She dragged Logan back to the tower, hardly able to keep her hands off of him in the cab. And they were already losing clothing by the time they disembarked the elevator to their floor. And later when she had collapsed onto his chest, sweaty and thoroughly sated, it hit her what he had asked her.

They were going to get married.

Darcy supposed that somewhere, in the back of her mind, she had always assumed it would happen, but now that it was a reality the concept seemed so much more abstracted.

She was likely going to live for centuries more, as was Logan. Save for Jane and Thor and their small family (Jane had mentioned Thor's negotiations with his father for allowing her access to Idunn's mythical apples, which would grant her immortality), most of the people they knew now, including her own mother, would be dead long before them. Something that Logan had already had a chance to get used to, but she would have to adjust to in the coming decades.

There was no specific reason they needed to get married. No one they knew was pressuring them to do so (except for her mom, but Darcy had long ago learned to ignore most of her mother's judgment), and Darcy generally figured that if Madam Universe had decided they were predestined to be together forever, then what was the difference: married or not.

But she supposed it gave them something to hold on to. A socially concrete stake in the ground that declared that destiny to the people around them. And Darcy definitely didn't mind the idea of promising, all formally and officially, to love and care for him forever -- even if their forever was a little longer than most. In fact, _especially_ given that their forever was longer than most.

She felt him stroking her back gently and felt the pull of exhaustion after a long and very happy day. Her last thought before she fell asleep was how content she was in that moment.

Logan felt Darcy's breathing slow and even out as she fell asleep with her head resting on his shoulder, and he continued to trace the line of his words along the center of her back with his fingertips.

He closed his eyes and smiled as he thought of their future together. She made him whole and she made him happy. He had smiled more in the last few years than he had in a dozen decades, and it was all because of her. Her firey spirit warmed him and her compassion for others made him want to be a better man. 

Logan considered himself the luckiest son-of-a-bitch he personally knew, and he lived amongst a logically impossible group of people, and berserkers, and super soldiers, and alien princes, and mutants. It often occurred to him that he had changed in the last six years. Before, he thought that trusting the universe to lay down his hand was insane and a practice only for fools.

But now, he thoroughly believed in fate and destiny. They had not only brought him Darcy, but arranged their fates so that he never had to watch her fade away from age and sickness. He got to keep her and love her for -- well, they still didn't quite know how long either of them would live, but bets were on a century or two more at least. But Logan wasn't alone in his elongated life anymore, and he'd never felt more complete.

And it was with that happy thought that he finally drifted to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The name "Tait" is an old Norse name that means "cheerful or happy."
> 
> Darcy's MOH dress: http://www.modcloth.com/shop/dresses/fun-one-like-you-dress-in-gold


End file.
